Dhaka, August 21 : A six-member delegation from Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) visited Pakistan on August 15, highlighting the growing military and intelligence engagement between Dhaka and Islamabad.
The visit comes just months after DGFI Director General Major General Mohammad Kaiser Rashid Chowdhury travelled to Islamabad in April 2026. The repeated high-level exchanges have raised questions over Pakistan’s expanding intelligence footprint in Bangladesh and the possibility of increased interaction between Bangladesh’s military intelligence establishment and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Since the political change in Bangladesh in August 2024, Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment has sought to deepen its engagement with Dhaka. The increased contacts have attracted particular attention in New Delhi because of Bangladesh’s strategic geographical position and its importance to India’s security environment in the northeast.
However, Bangladesh’s engagement with Pakistan does not necessarily indicate a complete strategic shift. DGFI leadership has also maintained contact with Indian security and intelligence officials, with discussions reportedly focusing on regional security, intelligence cooperation and preventing either country’s territory from being used for activities against the other.
For India, the concern is whether Pakistan’s growing military and intelligence engagement with Bangladesh could eventually affect India’s security interests along its eastern frontier.
New Delhi has an important stake in maintaining positive relations with Dhaka based on mutual interests, including border security, counterterrorism, trade, connectivity and regional stability. India is therefore expected to closely monitor the expanding Bangladesh-Pakistan security relationship while seeking to preserve its own strategic and diplomatic engagement with Bangladesh.
The repeated DGFI-ISI interactions underscore a broader geopolitical shift in South Asia. The key question for Dhaka will be whether it can maintain strategic autonomy and develop relations with Pakistan without compromising its longstanding security and economic interests with India.
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