Bangladesh-India border is among world's most dangerous borders
The borders that we see between countries are much more complicated than a line on a map.
Countries can share borders with more than one country at a time and having border disputes with many of them is common.
Here we made a list of the borders which are known to be the most dangerous:
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Bangladesh-India
Length: A 4,096 kilometres long international border, the fifth-longest land border in the world.
Nearly 1,000 Bangladeshis have been killed in the last 20 years.
The most important states in South Asia are Bangladesh and India. During the birth of Bangladesh the two states shared an unconditional bond. India's support was very crucial for Bangladesh during the liberation war against Pakistan.
Despite this, the cordial relations between these two countries, there are some fundamental issues between India and Bangladesh, such as boundary demarcations, the sharing of waters from common rivers, informal trade, transnational crime and others that have significantly affected those neighboring country's relationships.
At least 41 Bangladeshi citizens were killed by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) in 2019, 40 injured and 34 abducted, according to data compiled by Bangladesh-based human rights organization, Odhikar.
India-Pakistan
Length: 3,323 kilometres.
The India–Pakistan Border, commonly known as the International Border (IB), is an international border running between Pakistan and India.
Since the partition of British India in 1947 and creation of two different dominions, India and Pakistan, the two states have been involved in a number of conflicts.
The 2020 India–Pakistan border skirmishes are an ongoing series of armed clashes between India and Pakistan along the dispute region of Kashmir. The clashes have left at least 22 dead, including 11 civilians.
Indian claimed some 56 to 61 soldiers and 51 civilians were killed while Pakistani claimed 86 to 90 soldiers were killed and 1 soldier captured, from 2016 to 2018 in India and Pakistan border skirmishes, according to Wikipedia.
Afghanistan and Pakistan
Length: 2430 kilometres.
The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is called the Durand Line.
The border was disputed by the Taliban and later the Afghanistan president in 2001. In 2003, military forces from both sides were involved in armed conflict there and 4 years later, Pakistan began constructing fence lines as a means to keep Taliban militants from crossing. The danger here is in the lack of government control with people on all sides carrying arms, and this site sees illegal smuggling, murders, and kidnappings.
Most recently, a major highway connecting the two countries was closed down due to a disagreement over a Pakistani-constructed gate. The dispute ended in cross-border shootings that left 3 dead and 24 wounded.
Recently, this year on 31 July, Afghanistan accused Pakistan of killing 15 civilians during clashes at a border crossing where crowds were jostling to cross for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
In Pakistan, medics said seven people had died and 31 were brought in with bullet wounds.
United States and Mexico
Length: 3,145 kilometers
Close to 2,500 deaths since 2014.
Most of the violence remains on the Mexican side of the border. El Paso, Texas, had the dubious honour of being named the most dangerous border town in the United States, this June.
In 2010, the bloodiest year to date, at least 3,100 of the more than 15,000 organized-crime killings that year took place in Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican city located right across the border from El Paso.
More than 800 people died last year crossing deserts, rivers and remote lands while migrating across the Americas, making 2019 one of deadliest years on record, according to the UN migration agency said on 28 January, 2020.
As of June, about 40,000 people had died over the last four and a half years in drug-related killings across Mexico. About 45 percent of the deaths have occurred in the six Mexican states that hug the border: Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sonora, and Tamaulipas.
Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans have been driven from their homes, often to stay with relatives or in the United States.
Many people also attempt crossing through the remote rugged terrain of the vast Arizona desert region, where at least 171 people died in 2019 – a 29 per cent jump over the 133 deaths documented in this area in 2018, according to UN News.
North and South Korea border
Length: 250 kilometres long, and about 4 kilometres wide.
The world's most dangerous border is North Korea's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which splits the Korean peninsula in half creating a buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea.
It's the most militarized border on earth.
The Korean War ended 70 years ago, but their hostilities have not ended. This 160-mile border is the most dangerous border in the world. The border areas are heavily armed by troops from both sides, barbed wires.
Tensions are very high that the DMZ was created as a sort of buffer zone to keep the countries and their respective military forces at a safe distance from each other. Anyone who tries to cross the line will be shot.
