Hindu Vivek Kendra
A RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE PROMOTION OF HINDUTVA
   
 
 
«« Back
Bangladesh patronising terrorists at the instance of Pakistan to hurt India

Bangladesh patronising terrorists at the instance of Pakistan to hurt India

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.
 


Back                          Top

«« Back
 
 
 
  Search Articles
 
  Special Annoucements