Bangladesh and India: Two neighboring countries share ancient times and a common heritage, as well as linguistic and cultural ties. Bangladesh, located on the eastern edge of India, has a larger percentage of Muslim population, occupies a visible corner of the South Asian map, and shares a friendly and dignified history with India. ** The destinies of India and Bangladesh are, and will always remain, inextricably intertwined, the geographical truth is so. But these commonalities should not hide the prevailing problem of the border issue, one of the most contentious issues plaguing bilateral relations. The border issue is not unique to India-Bangladesh relations as most countries have border issues in one form or the other. Mexican Nobel laureate Octavio Paz and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had both said that their countries' proximity to the United States was both a blessing and a curse. Bangladesh's relationship with India has similar complexity. Except for Sylhet district, which was previously in the province of Assam, during the British colonial rule, Bangladesh was part of the province of Bengal. Eastern Bengal and Sylhet district together constituted East Pakistan, due to the partition of India in August 1947, and later Bangladesh. A British judge, Sir Cyril Radcliff, headed the Boundary Commission, drew the 4,156 kilometer border between India and East Pakistan. That border runs through rivers, canals, villages, markets, farmland and tropical forests. Almost no distinctive geographic features exist to delimit the border. Over the past 66 years, almost the entire length of the border has been demarcated; this was truly a Herculean task. However, f... half the card... illegal. India was the next country after Bhutan to recognize Bangladesh as a separate and independent state and establish diplomatic relations with the country soon after its independence in December 1971. Over the last four decades, the two countries have continued to consolidate their political, economic, commercial and cultural relations and have built a comprehensive institutional framework to promote bilateral cooperation. Border killing problems occasionally pose serious risks in areas of bilateral cooperation. Indiscriminate border killings by Indian BSF forces are a high-profile issue. According to Human Rights Watch, Indian border security forces have killed nearly 1,000 Bangladeshis over the past 10 years. This means that a murder occurs every four days, which constitutes a serious violation of human rights and international law.