Kids being used to smuggle at India-Bangladesh border: BSF official

KOlkataIt was oct 22. A sleepy-eyed hamlet in w Bengal’s compass north 24 Parganas district went about its day as usual. Farmers toiled in the fields, women queued at the village tube well for drinking water, and children enjoyed the last few days of the puja vacation.Hakimpur’s Daharkanda, a remote border village, remained calm, but the Border Security Force’s (BSF) 143 battalion stationed there was on high alert following intelligence about a possible gold smuggling attempt — involving a child.“Around 10.30 am, we saw a boy suspiciously moving towards the border. He was wearing black half-pants and a dark pink T-shirt. Our men immediately chased the boy and caught him. At least 11 gold biscuits, kept in a black polythene packet, were seized from him,” said a BSF official posted in Hakimpur.The gold weighed over 1.2kg and was valued at ₹1.64 crore, the official added.During questioning, the boy revealed that his mother had sent him to deliver the packet at a designated spot. The child was handed over to the customs department along with the seized gold and produced before the Juvenile Justice Board as a Juvenile in Conflict with Law (JCL). He is now lodged in a juvenile home.“Please do something to bring out my son, sir. He is just 12 years old. He is lodged in a juvenile home near Dakshineshwar. His mother has also been arrested and is lodged in Dum Dum jail. She did something wrong. I was not at home. She won’t do it again,” the boy’s father told HT during a visit to their house in Daharkanda.This was not an isolated case. On December 24, 2022, BSF’s 115 battalion detained a seven-year-old girl from Raghunathganj in Murshidabad district with about 107 grams of heroin. She had been asked by her mother to deliver the packet.Teenage boys and girls have also been caught smuggling drugs and other contraband to Bangladesh for quick money. On 17 May 2022, a 17-year-old boy from Raninagar, Murshidabad, was held with 55 bottles of Phensedyl.“During questioning, it surfaced that the boy had done it for ₹1,000. He had taken the consignment from one Huru Mondal, a resident of Raninagar, and was going to hand it over to Akash Sheikh, a resident of Dashmari village in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, just across the riverine border,” a BSF official said.Data from the BSF’s South Bengal Frontier reveal that around 80 children have been detained for smuggling activities in border villages across south Bengal between 2021 and November 2025. The border here spans roughly 920 km.This year, 11 such cases have been reported, including the recent gold smuggling attempt at Hakimpur in North 24 Parganas’ Swarupnagar subdivision.“Out of these 11 cases, at least seven have come from Swarupnagar in North 24 Parganas. The border here is unfenced and riverine. Villages lie very close to the border, with easy approach roads on both sides,” said a senior BSF official.The Indo-Bangladesh border runs 4,096 km, passing through West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. West Bengal shares about 2,216 km of this border—the longest stretch between any Indian state and a neighbour. Tripura shares 856 km, with Meghalaya at 443 km.In Tripura last year, BSF personnel seized 4,495 Yaba tablets, a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine, worth ₹44.9 lakh, from a boy.A senior BSF official noted that around 864 km of the Indo-Bangladesh border remains unfenced across the five states. Nearly 174 km cannot be fenced due to terrain challenges, objections from the Border Guard Bangladesh, land acquisition delays, and other factors.“It is these unfenced stretches that make the border more vulnerable to smuggling. As contraband volume rises, children are increasingly roped in by smugglers as shields,” the official said.Data submitted to the Lok Sabha in March reveal that contraband seizures along the Indo-Bangladesh border reached a record ₹461.7 crore in 2024, up from ₹137 crore in 2018 and ₹247 crore in 2020.“Usually, after the BSF apprehends a minor involved in smuggling, the child is handed to police or customs. The child is then produced before the district Juvenile Justice Board. If the seized item is metal such as gold, it goes to customs; if narcotics, to the police,” said an officer from Swarupnagar police station.A Juvenile in Conflict with Law can be detained in a juvenile home for up to three years. The board may also order community service. Typically, terms are shorter for gold offences and longer for narcotics.“The BSF is a responsible force and due process is followed whenever a minor is detained. Smugglers often exploit children in border villages for their own interests. BSF troops remain alert, determined and committed to preventing cross-border crimes and smuggling,” the official added.