NEW DELHI: India is not having the best of times with its neighbours and its newly-minted prickly ties with Nepal and Bangladesh have added to the mix. Reports said on Sunday that three Bangladeshi men were lynched in the border state of Assam for alleged cattle theft, while a Nepali man was tonsured in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency of Varanasi where anti-Nepali posters had surfaced.

The Hindu said three Bangladeshi nationals, alleged to be cattle smugglers, were lynched by locals in southern Assam’s Karimganj district around midnight on July 18. Four others from across the border escaped.

Kumar Sanjit Krishna, the district’s Superintendent of Police said the incident happened at Bogrijan Tea Estate under Patharkandi police close to the border with Bangladesh and about 1.5 km from the nearest police outpost.

“On inquiry, it was revealed that the said Bangladeshi nationals crossed the border with a motive to steal cows from the Bogrijan area. They were lynched by people yet to be identified,” he told The Hindu from district headquarters Karimganj on July 19.

A few items recovered from the three included Bangladesh-made biscuits and bread, rope, bag, wires and fence-cutters, Mr. Krishna said.

The police recovered the bodies of the three men and a process was on to hand them over to the Bangladeshi authorities through India’s Border Security Force.

This was the second such incident in Karimganj district in less than two months, The Hindu said.

On June 1, a 43-year-old Bangladeshi national was lynched in a tea estate situated about 3 km from the India-Bangladesh border. The man was identified as Ranjit Munda and police quoted locals as saying he had come with five others — three Bangladeshis and two Indians — to steal cows from cattle farmers in the estate.

Meanwhile, an Indian national was injured after the Nepal Police allegedly shot at three men near India-Nepal border in Bihar’s Kishanganj, reports said.

This is reportedly the second such incident from the India-Nepal border in recent times. Last month, the Nepal Armed Police Force, responsible for border security, is said to have opened fire on a group during a clash at a border point near Sitamarhi in Bihar, killing one Indian and injuring two others.

Senior police officers of Nepal and Bihar had, however, described it as a local incident, saying that it was not related to the border row between Delhi and Kathmandu.

Last week, following reports of anti-Nepal posters and the forced tonsure of a Nepali national in Varanasi, Nepal’s ambassador Nilamabar Acharya spoke with the Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Yogi Adityanath to ask after the safety of Nepal nationals in the state, The Wire news portal said.

Earlier in the week, Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli had claimed at a function that it was highly likely that the birthplace of Lord Ram was not Ayodhya in India, but in Nepal.

A clarification was issued by Nepal foreign ministry a day later that his words were not meant to hurt sentiments and had only urged further research into Ramayana’s ‘cultural geography’.

The city of Varanasi has close connections with Nepal and is home to a large community of Nepalis, many of whom work in temples.

Speaking to The Wire, Nepal’s envoy Acharya said that he was informed last week that posters had been put up at the Pashupatinath temple in Varanasi’s Lalita Ghat condemning Mr. Oli’s remarks and also threatening Nepali nationals in India. The poster was signed by a little-known group, ‘Vishwa Hindu Sena’.

Later, the purported head of this group uploaded a video, in which an unidentified Nepali national was shown with a tonsured head, on which ‘Jai Shri Ram’ was written in black. The video showed the Nepali man being prodded by the group members to shout slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mati ki jai’.

Mr. Acharya said that he spoke to Uttar Pradesh CM in the morning and asked him to ensure that Nepalese nationals did not feel unsafe.

He stated that he was satisfied with the action taken by the chief minister — an FIR has been filed in the case. According to The Hindu, Varanasi police stated that FIR was registered at Bhelupur police station.

Diplomatic sources said that while relations between the two governments could have their “ups and downs”, this should not be reflected in the ties between the population of the neighbours. “We have to ensure that there is no escalation in these kinds of incidents. It should not spread like a virus,” a source told The Wire.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2020