Saif Ali Khan attack accused turns spotlight on porous India-Bangladesh border
Shariful Islam, who has been arrested for stabbing Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, is reported to have entered India by crossing the Umngot River in Meghalaya
The Border Security Force (BSF) is probing claims that the alleged Bangladeshi undocumented immigrant arrested for stabbing Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan in Mumbai entered India months earlier by crossing the Umngot River along the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya’s Dawki, an officer of the frontier guarding force said.

Shariful Islam, the 30-year-old accused, is believed to have lived in India undetected under the false name of Vijay Das. He allegedly stayed in West Bengal, where he used a resident’s Aadhaar card to procure a mobile phone connection before moving to Mumbai in search of work.
The reports about Shariful Islam’s illegal entry into India have turned the spotlight again on the 4,096.7 km India-Bangladesh border, the country’s longest land frontier. The border is riverine and policing it is challenging despite fencing. The Umngot River water levels are up to waist level during winters making it vulnerable to illegal cross-border crossings.
The BSF said 355 Bangladeshis, local facilitators, and smugglers were arrested from August 2023 to December 2024 along Meghalaya’s border with Bangladesh.
The officer of the force cited above, who did not want to be named, said there is no concrete information about Shariful Islam’s specific crossing as of now, but the force was actively investigating the claim. The officer said the porous border and challenging terrain complicate the BSF’s efforts to end illegal crossings.
“Complete fencing is urgently needed in vulnerable areas.” The officer said they were in touch with the government to expedite the process, particularly land acquisition for the fencing.
Much of Meghalaya’s 443 km border with Bangladesh—367.155 km—is fenced. The work for fencing an additional 19.759 km is going on. The remaining unfenced border remains vulnerable to infiltration and smuggling. The BSF has reported local involvement in such illegal activities as well.
Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma addressed concerns about pending fencing work after the fall of Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina’s government in August last year. “Given the emergency-like situation at these unfenced areas, we need to take a stand,” he had said. He added efforts were underway to engage local communities to check infiltration.
Officials said Tripura, which shares the second longest border (856 km) with Bangladesh after West Bengal, has emerged as the preferred state for illegal crossings. They added people with access and networks in the state facilitated illegal border crossings and provided shelters and fake identity documents to allow undocumented immigrants to travel to other parts of the country.
Most of the Bangladesh border in Tripura has been covered with barbed wire fencing. The BSF said it has cracked down on networks involved in smuggling and to prevent infiltration.
As many as 2,815 Bangladeshis were arrested for entering Tripura from 2022 to October 31 last year, said a report tabled in the state assembly. Officials said 1,746 of them were deported and the rest were in jails, shelter homes, and temporary detention centres.
Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said nearly 1,000 Bangladeshis, who entered Assam illegally, were sent back between August 5 and December 31 last year. He said infiltration from Bangladesh to northeastern states increased after the fall of the Hasina government as the textile industry faced a downfall.
“After the unrest in Bangladesh, the textiles industry virtually collapsed. So, the labourers working there started coming to India. Many textile industry owners in our country started incentivising them and spent money to import the cheap labourers from Bangladesh,” he said on January 1.
Assam’s Cachar, Sribhumi (formerly Karimganj), Dhubri and South Salmara Mankachar districts share a 268 km border mostly fenced with Bangladesh.
Sribhumi Police Superintendent Partha Pratim Das said over 200 Bangladeshis were arrested along the Assam-Tripura border mostly from trains over the last six months.
BSF said nearly 4.5 kilometres of border in Cachar and Sribhumi remained unfenced and most of it is riverine. “The security arrangements along the borders were enhanced after [the fall of government in Bangladesh]...additional CCTV cameras and other technologies were installed to strengthen the 24/7 vigil,” said an official.
A second police officer said mostly undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants head to south and north Indian states on trains from the northeast. “We have arrested many of them from trains and recovered fake Indian documents.”
