The retreat of a bugle and marching by Border Security Force soldiers in crisp uniforms was in harmony with Border Guard Bangladesh personnel as the two sides performed a Retreat Ceremony drill on a February weekend.

At the Agartala-Akhaura international border point in Tripura, a hundred spectators on both sides watched in pride taking pictures and videos as the flags are lowered on each side in a perfectly choreographed routine every weekend.

Advertisement

As one comes in from Agartala, a huge land custom station akin to one at the Amritsar border for Pakistan has come up. Enter inside and there is a registration table. “Aadhaar card?” asked BSF head constable Amerika Singh, before handing out an entry pass to the visitors.

Contrary to the aggressive feet-stomping retreat ceremony at the Wagah border on the India-Pakistan border in Punjab, this one is solemn.

Despite the current coldness of relations between the two countries, the ceremony continues. 

People from all walks of life, common citizens, turned up to watch, witness, and have a moment to interact with citizens on the other side. 

Given that Akhaura border serves as a legal entry to and from Bangladesh, there was little activity in wake of the crisis in the neighbouring country. It is the land custom station for border crossing and trade with Tripura and the Northeast at large.

The ceremony with the uniformed pomp was less than an hour. The boundary on the road to Brahmanbari in Bangladesh was barricaded immediately after the retreat ceremony as two expressionless soldiers of BSF and BGB stood guard on each side. 

Visitors from both sides, however, were expressive. Many of them talking to one another. People on both sides have relatives on the other side. “Apni-Ami to akei (there is no difference between us),” said a smiling Azizur Rahman, a local journalist from Bangladesh as he invited us to Bangladesh.

Bengali speaking tourists spoke to the Bangladeshi visitors across the barricade. Both sides of the divide seemed to have similar emotions. An Indian lady told a Bangladeshi that she is doing her best to get the required documents to visit Bangladesh. After about two hours of the ceremony and interactions, everyone was told to disperse. The scene was no doubt a touching one.

But realpolitik is different. The rush of people from either side to visit relatives till last year, is now reduced to a trickle. Only a few patients from Bangladesh come in and fewer from India visit the other side.

Rahman’s loving words were not quite reciprocated on the Agartala side as most people felt Bangladesh was not acting in good faith. “The people who have desecrecated the statue of their founder and are killing minorities – what can we say of them,” said Tinku Saha, who drives tourists to the border from town.

“There is little or no tourist or trade traffic ever since we opened in December last year,” said Subrata, the manager at Calcutta64 Cafe, a restaurant chain for the India-Bangladesh border. Business of course is good as Agartala’s young crowds visit for coffee and burgers and mocktails in the evenings.

At the Kamalasagar border in Tripura-West, the border haat remains closed. The location is famous for the Kasbeshwari Kali temple named after the Kasbah town across the border. Locals and BSF guards said the market did not return back to life ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. The BSF were strictly on vigil, monitoring a few cowherds who are allowed across the border. The border haat was also further affected by the present crisis in Bangladesh.

The only sign of life around the Kamalasagar pond is the train line on the Bangladesh side. The track runs from Akhaura to Kasbah and one can run parallel in Tripura till Sonamura and Comilla would be just 15km across. Just across the Kasbeshwari temple is the Comilla View Tourist Lodge, another reminder of the emotional attachments in this fuzzy geography.

Nearby, across the barbed fence is the deserted haat that has a few structures. A foundation stone dated May 21, 2014 wore a dusty look inches from the fence. The border haats were opened in 2015.

Last year, Tripura finance minister Pranajit Singha Roy told the state legislative assembly that trade between Tripura and Bangladesh rose by a whopping 94.04 percent in five years. That’s nearly a double in five years. The minister said trade volumes between Tripura and Bangladesh increased from Rs 390.68 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 758.09 crore in 2022-23. In that the value of exports from Tripura to Bangladesh has gone up to Rs 121.37 crore in 2023-24.

Since the disturbances in Bangladesh, the optimism of last year has given way to anxiety on both sides this year. The current political scenario in Bangladesh has affected the movement across the border. It has also severely hampered the trade between the two countries.

Tripura shares an 856km border with Bangladesh. People cross over, and trade continued till last year. Agartala Land port recorded a total trade volume of 317.95 crore during the year 2023-2024. The period also recorded as many as 336,678 visitors. There were over 7,000 cargo movements as well.

There are three main border haats on the Tripura border, where small traders from both sides used come during the day and returned in the evening. Goods included daily utilities from clothes to food products.

Locals say that the number of visitors has drastically gone down, as well as Indians traveling to Bangladesh has been minimal since the past months. The trade between the two countries faces a challenge as the neighboring country has been going through a political crisis since August last year. Human contact has also been impacted. Locals in Tripura also said that the number of truckloads that are crisscrossing the Akhaura border has decreased tremendously.

As border security and fencing are stepped up by India, security forces claim there has been control of illegal migration. In 2024 a total of 675 illegal immigrants, including 55 Rohingyas with roots in Myanmar, 620 Bangladeshi nationals, and 620 Indian nationals were apprehended by the the BSF.