Bangladesh returns farmer abducted from no-man’s land in Assam

The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) returned a 60-year-old farmer from southern Assam’s Cachar district more than 10 hours after he was allegedly abducted from the Indian side of the border on Tuesday (June 16, 2026) morning.Although Ranjit Das was taken away from the Kinnarkhal area of Cachar’s Katigorah, BGB personnel handed him over to their Border Security Force (BSF) counterparts at the Bhanga border outpost in the adjoining Sribhumi district later in the day.“The man, a resident of Chandinagar Part-II village close to our [Kinnarkhal] outpost, was released at 9.

15 p.m. after a series of flag meetings between the border-guarding forces of the two countries,” a BSF officer based in southern Assam said.

Later, the local police took Mr. Das to Katigorah Model Hospital for a medical examination and preliminary treatment. He said he was initially assaulted by his abductors, but was treated fairly well during his 10-hour captivity in a house on the Bangladesh side of the international border.

India and Bangladesh share a 4,096.7-km border. The Assam sector, separated by Meghalaya, is 263 km long.

The zero line— the actual boundary between two countries—runs along the midpoint of rivers demarcating more than 45 km of Assam’s border with Bangladesh.Sujit Das, the farmer’s son, said his father had gone to the “no-man’s land” along with 16 others to work on their agricultural plots and cut grass for their cattle. A 150-yard strip on either side of the zero line is referred to as no-man’s land.

“They went across the barbed-wire fence after the BSF opened border gate number 31 in the morning. While returning, my father realised he had left his machete behind and went back to retrieve it,” he said.According to international rules, a country can erect border fences beyond 150 yards from the zero line.

Such fences have gates that are opened for farmers to work on their plots in the no-man’s land for a specific period daily.From afar, one of the farmers reportedly saw two men cross the Surma River—which marks the boundary in the Kinnarkhal area—in a boat, pounce on Mr. Das on the Indian side of the riverbank, and take him away at around 11 a.

m.“The Bangladeshi nationals told my father that they had taken him to settle scores because they claimed one of their brothers had been killed on the Indian side of the border,” Sujit Das said.Local BJP MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha said Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma coordinated with senior BSF officials and relevant Ministries in New Delhi to secure the farmer’s safe return.

“This is the first such incident in this section of the border. We hope it is the last,” Mr. Purkayastha said.

Published - June 17, 2026 07:46 pm IST Read Comments Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit READ LATER SEE ALL Remove Related Topics Assam