Dhaka, Aug 29 An Indian newspaper has said intelligence reports point to possible return of the BNP and its allies to power in the next parliamentary elections, raising alarms about anti-India forces getting a free run to use Bangladesh to carry terrorism and other subversive activities. The Times of Indian ran a report titled "India's worries could mount with Khaleda Zia's expected return to power in Bangladesh" based on the Indian intelligence.
"Revolving-door politics being much the norm in Bangladesh, it is likely to be the turn of Begum Khaleda Zia, Hasina's arch rival who is not known to be friendly towards India. In fact, as she rises in the charts capitalizing on Hasina's incumbency, Khaleda has also been busy painting the prime minister an Indian stooge," said the largest-selling Indian daily in the report.
The next parliamentary election is scheduled for early 2014.
According to the report, Indian security agencies fear "Bangladesh-based subversive elements, like those aligned with fundamentalist outfit and BNP partner Jamaat-e-Islami, could resume their policy of sponsoring and sheltering insurgent groups active in northeast India which use the neighbouring country as a safe haven besides providing an infiltration route to Pakistan-sponsored terror outfits."
The security agencies fear also saw the Assam riot between the Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims having the potential to be exploited by Bangladeshi fundamentalists to radicalise the Muslim youth, adding muscle to home-grown terror in India.
The intelligence reports said Jamaat-e-Islami with assistance from ISI fund Assam-based Muslim fundamentalist groups like Multa, Mulfa, Simi and Indian Mujahideen.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government, however, was praised in the report for helping India bust dens of their insurgent groups and in investigating terror incidents having Bangladeshi linkages.
"However, as the popularity of the Awami League regime under Hasina dips, ceding ground to rival BNP, the agencies fear that the gains of the last few years may be reversed if Khaleda regains power," the Indian English daily said in the report.
Indian intelligence operatives are beyond any doubt that Paskitan's ISI uses Bangladesh to carry out anti-India operations. They drew instance with the banned Islamist outfit HuJI which is said to have close links with Pakistani militant groups.
"Many of the ISI-sponsored perpetrators of terror attacks in India had either infiltrated through Bangladesh or escaped to the neighbouring country after the strikes," the report continues.
"There are many other instances of ISI links with Bangladesh: ISI footing the election bill of Khaleda in 1991, a revelation made by none other than former ISI chief Assad Durani; NSCN cadres travelling to Pakistan from Dhaka in March 1996 for training in guerrilla warfare; an ISI-sponsored technical expert training Ulfa in operation and installation of communication equipment at a Nagaland camp; detaining of NSCN(I-M) chief T Muivah at Bangkok airport in January 2000 while returning from Karachi after allegedly inspecting an arms consignment; and the revelation of arrested All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) cadres that ISI had extended $20,000 assistance to Tk 58 lakh to the outfit, besides imparting arms training to eight ATTF cadres in 1997 at Kandahar, Afghanistan."
The Indian security establishment, however, is keen to arrest the slide in Awami League's popularity, the report said.
To help the Hasina government stop losing popularity, the Indian government was suggested some advice including finding a positive development on the Teesta water-sharing pact, managing financial assistance for the Padma bridge project, and exchanging of enclaves to correct 'the negative perception in Bangladesh that Hasina has not managed any major concessions from India.'
news (bdnews24.com)
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