Author: Ram- Atul
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: December 28, 2002
There seems to be something sinister
behind the unfriendliness, bordering on hostility, which the Begum Khalida
Zia government has started to display towards India. Could it be part of
a plot to encircle India with an arch of hostile nations? No need to guess
the Identity of the author of this plot: except Pakistan, no other nation
in the region would go to that length of trying to weaken India in every
possible manner.
Pakistan did try to court the Khalida
predecessor to spread anti-India poison in the eastern flank of South Asia,
But the Awami League leader did not yield, though at one stage she too
appeared to turn anti-India as a part of her survival kit on the domestic
scene. Things are different now. Sharing power with Khalida's BNP, the
religious fanatics and fundamentalists are in a position to influence both
domestic and foreign policies of the country.
Pakistan started the game of sowing
hostility towards India in its neighbourhood by first targeting Nepal.
Given the fractured nature of the democracy in the Himalayan Kingdom, Islamabad
has met with little or no resistance in carrying forward its mission. The
Pakistani embassy in Kathmandu had become the hub of anti-India activities
of ISI. These activities include not only helping an assortment of terrorists
and subversives from India to extending logistic support to the hijackers
of an Indian Airlines plane and setting up a base for smuggling terrorists
into India through the open Indo-Nepal border. Another lucrative activity
for the ISI operatives in Kathmandu was faking Indian currency notes, particularly
of Rs 500 denomination and propping up proxies through business links to
do their bidding.
But ISI could not and did not want
to put all its eggs in one basket. More over the local covers getting exposed
in the recent past, Pakistan has to search for new pastures. That is how
Bangladesh has come to figure on the Pakistan radar screen, where it remained
a blip in the recent past. ISI is not new to Dhaka. It has had its presence
in the Bangladesh capital and the Chittagong hill tracts for a long while
and has been helping the Naga and Asom ultras in running proxy businesses.
Bangladesh has a residual of sympathy
for Pakistan and its ideology had existed even at the height of the freedom
movement that had led to the separation of the eastern wing of Pakistan
In December 1971, These elements had to he low only for a brief period
till the brutal assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the Father of Bangladesh.
During the long years of rule by anti-Mujibur Rehman forces including military
dictators, the pro-Pakistani-cum fundamentalists forces had no difficulty
in consolidating their positions.
The Indian Home Ministry thinks
that the Pakistani High Commission In Dhaka is an 'important link' for
terrorist outfits which are guided and assisted by the ISI as well the
intelligence unit of the 'Bangladesh Army. The "advantage" in concentrating
anti-India efforts in Bangladesh is obvious. The border between India and
Bangladesh is quite porous. Besides, almost all the subversive, anti-India
elements in eastern India belong to areas not very far from the Bangladesh
border. Bangladesh has always been the 'hub' of terrorist activities in
the North East.
Cox's Bazar in Chittagong district
is being, used for transhipment of weapons explosives. It is widely believed
that the southern port of Bangladesh was also used for bringing in fugitive
Al Qaeda activists from Afghanistan after the US had launched its war on'
the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan last year. There is "Incontrovertible' proof
of anti-India camps being run in Bangladesh and the patronage they enjoy
from the Bangladesh Army as well as the police. Tripura's chief minister
Manik Sarkar has been literally crying hoarse over the unfriendly attitude
of the neighbour. He has collected voluminous material from both his own
party sources and the police sources on the camps that dot the landscape
across the border. The centre has also come up with corroborative evidence
front its own sources electronic and field intelligence. Security agencies
in India have identified as many as 130 camps in Bangladesh. They have
documented details of training camps for insurgents from the North East,
thriving on Bangladeshi soil with the blessings of the Bangladesh Army
and the Bangladesh Rifles. Most of the camps are in Dhaka, Chittagong.
Sylhet, Habibganj, Mymensingh, Rangamati, Khagracharl, Bandarban, Sherpur,
Moulvi Bazar, Netrakona and Sunamganj.
About 40 camps are run for the National
Liberation Front of Tripura. ULFA has 24 camps. Then there are joint camps
which serve groups like the NSCN (I-M), NSCN (Khaplang), ULFA, National
Democratic Front of Bodoland, NLFT. All Tripura Tiger Force, People's Liberation
Army and United National liberation Front.
The director general of the Border
Security Force, Ajay Raj Sharma, has said that the activities by the ISI
and Islamic fundamentalists in Bangladesh were growing and Al Qaeda men
were arriving in that country to bolster fundamentalist forces.
Dhaka is naturally peeved at the
publicity drawn by its sectarian and increasing anti-India policies. The
foreign media has also written authoritatively about Dhaka's swift shift
towards fundamentalism and its dubious role in fighting terrorism. But,
if media reports are to be disbelieved, what about the European Union Parliament,
which had adopted a resolution against Bangladesh?
The Khaleda Zia government is, in
fact, very perturbed over the exposure of the rise of radicalism in the
country where the minorities have been a special target of the fundamentalists
ever since the change of regime. Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi,
could well cite a precedent in the state deciding to mutely watch atrocities
on minorities.
A victim of the Dhaka regime's intolerance
has been a team of TV journalists, working for Britain's Channel Four TV,
who were recently arrested in the country when they were preparing a report
on the activities of various radical Islamic groups and the suppression
of Opposition and minority leaders. The British and Italian journalists
were released after a few days of detention without trial. They had obviously
strayed into 'dangerous' territory, just like the American journalist Daniel
Pearl had in Karachi some months ago only to meet a gruesome end. But some
Bangladeshi journalists continue to be held on the ground that they had
worked with these foreign journalists who were out to 'malign' the country.
Driven by, its anti-India fury,
the Bangladesh Finance Minister, Saifur Rehman, has ruled out extending
any transit or transhipment facility for India. One of the reasons given
is that the roads In Bangladesh are not good enough! Aren't there means
other than roads to transport goods in Bangladesh? Dhaka will not export
natural gas to India even though it will earn it millions of dollars annually.
But after Reliance stuck huge gas reserves in the Krishna-Godavary basin,
Dhaka is trying to sing a different tune. With some prompting from the
US multinationals, of course. As the biggest country in South Asia, India
can always expect some uncomfortable moments from its neighbours all of
whom suffer from a complex vis--vis India's size and potential Some allowance
could also have been made for the fact that the present ruling coalition
in Dhaka was helped into power a great deal by Its' anti-India rhetoric.
Politicians and some South Bloc mandarins were suspected of having courted
Begum Zia's arch rival, Sheikh Hasina, too openly.
But the government of India was
prepared to forget the past after Begum Zia came to power. Within days
of her being sworn into office over a year ago, the National Security Adviser,
Brajesh Mishra, flew to Dhaka to personally assure the new government that
India would continue to work for friendly ties with Bangladesh. In August
this year, the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha travelled to Dhaka
to reaffirm the same view. Clearly, India expected Bangladesh to reciprocate
in some positive manner. Matters where Indo-Bangla relations get stuck
include not only transit facilities, but also illegal immigration. But
there is no hint from Dhaka that it is going to do anything to sort out
these and other matters of mutual concern.
The newfound love of Bangladesh
for terrorists is out of place in the post 9/11 world. India had, conveyed
its concerns about anti-India activities on Bangladesh soil to that country's
Foreign Minister, Morshed Khan, when he was in India last June. But it
brought no change in Dhaka's policy towards India. Bangladesh is, welcome
to style itself as the Pakistani clone on India's eastern border. But the
Dhaka regime is mistaken in thinking that it can get away with every folly
the way the Pakistani dictator, Pervez Musharraf, does because of the blind
support extended to him by the Iraq-obsessed US administration. Bangladesh
does not enjoy the logistic advantage that Pakistan offers to the US. Of
course, Bangladesh can always merge with Pakistan to become East Pakistan.
But it is doubtful if even the religious fundamentalists in the country
would-prefer that course.
Once a 'basket case', Bangladesh
later showed signs of doing well with its economy on the upswing and democracy
with its values like tolerance and liberty taking roots. But that course
no longer seems to be running smoothly. Bangladesh can gain nothing if
It continues to patronise terrorists and builds up tension with its western
neighbour. More so after the Al Qaeda clones have put Khalida Zia government
on notice with bomb blasts in Mymensingh and proudly declared that they
had carried out the job for a price.