Leems Sparrow
“India will never forget what we did for them,” former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stated this several times throughout her address, and she repeated it publicly one more time during her visit to India in 2022. Why was she saying that? How did she accomplish something for India in the face of such widespread anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh? To fully comprehend the literal meaning of her speech, we must focus on archives and incidents from the last three decades that could assist us make inferences on this topic to clarify why the combination of JAMAAT AND ISI is potentially hazardous for the Indian subcontinent and has resulted in widespread hostility.
United Liberation Force of Asom (ULFA) who had spread their wing strongly from Bangladesh without any hurdle during the BNP-JAMAAT government in 1991-1996 and as well as 2001-2006. This revolutionary insurgent group worked as the bridge between other insurgent groups in North East India and Hill tracts of Bangladesh. Slowly like the conflict theory grasped that group and carved them into pieces. They started a civil war between themselves, taking bribes from their own people and ruling them as a pro authoritarian, and also destroying the peace of their own territory. They started with a hope of combatting the mountain but engaging in darkness of geopolitics ended them in nothingness, and that suggested to us they had less intention of independence but formed for a particular reason with the help of radical political power from the neighbouring nation.
According to Janakantha, a renowned daily Bangla newspaper, when Anup Chetia was detained in 1997, police discovered two Bagladeshi passports on him. In that piece, they also stated that in 2005, police discovered ULFA’s hotel operations in Dhaka and Sylhet, as well as numerous of their bank account addresses in Dhaka, Chattagram, and Sylhet, which they used to conduct all of their secret activities. They also included the activity of another insurgent group from Nagaland, known as the NSCN (National Socialist Council of Nagaland), whose leaders, Ishak Shu and Anthony Shimrine, used Bangladeshi passports to visit several countries, including the United States, Britain, and Singapore.
The role that ULFA and NSCN played at the period was very inspirational to other insurgent groups in North East India, as well as in the Hill tracts of Bangladesh. During the BNP-JAMAAT government, these groups dramatically expanded their insurgent force. JAMAAT, a radical political party, directly patronized those groups and assisted them by supplying links and ammunition from ISI, while the BNP (Bangladesh National Party) allowed them in the hope of destabilizing the Awami League. According to the Economic Times, BNP- JAMAAT maintains intimate ties with North East Indian insurgents. In 2004, one of the largest shipments of deadly weapons through Bangladesh was seized, which was stunning and unexpected given the subcontinent’s history.
Dhristi Rajkhowa, the ULFA’s second-in-command when arrested in 2020, disclosed the ISI’s role in North East India and Bangladesh’s Hill Tracts. According to the Economic Times: “Rajkhowa has been accused of maintaining contacts with Pakistani diplomats and probably having a meeting with the Pakistan High commissioner to Dhaka.” They further stated that he was sighted just a few days before his detention in Jaflong, near the Bangladesh-India border, when the Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka, Imran Siddique, was at a resort in the vicinity.
We may learn about Indian supremacy, involvement, and negotiation in Bangladesh politics from the BNP-JAMAAT manifesto, which alleges a relationship between R&W and the Awami League. It is true that the Indian government informed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, a few months before his killing, and Sheikh Hasina in 2004, before the August grenade attack. Aside from that, Sheikh Hasina has effectively established her dictatorship as the sole secular government in Bangladesh history. From that standpoint, India had no other options in Bangladesh to maintain a positive relationship with Bangladesh. So, this bonding is historically embodied in India and the Awami League, which have had a profound relationship since Bangladesh’s liberation war against Pakistan, whether it is the Congress or the BJP.
On top of that, the relationship between JAMAAT and Pakistan has always been historic, something they never dispute, and it is now an open secret. They also consider it a blood-religious relationship. According to historical records, JAMAAT and its leader Ali Ahsan Mujahid repeatedly condemned Bengali freedom fighters in the ‘Songram’ newspaper and actively assisted Pakistani invaders during the 1971 war, and we saw that same style of using radical ideology in politics again when JAMAAT and Ali Ahsan Mujahid were elected to parliament after forming a coalition with the BNP in 2001-2006. JAMAAT continued their propaganda against the Bengali liberation war and considered it as an Indian conspiracy to divide East and West Pakistan.
Similarly, JAMAAT E ISLAM’s politics continue to prioritize extreme ideology over dissent and extremism. Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, we have noticed that JAMAAT actively participates in the Interim Government led by Muhammad Younus. This unknown party is not only keeping friendly connections with the Younus government, but it is also developing strategies and policies to defend the Awami League, and to some extent, actively opposes India and its relationship with Bangladesh.
According to reports from European Union and British parliamentary members, as well as local and international media coverage, Bangladesh’s minority populations are in dire peril as a result of repeated attacks by extremist sympathizers. All of these occurrences occurred because JAMAAT continues to deliberately promote anti-India feeling among young folks in order to become a dominant political party and secure the nation’s leadership. This kind of politics steadily undermines the stable situation between these two neighboring countries, and it appears that this region is becoming the new battleground for the world’s lords.
Tension has risen in the relationship between Bangladesh and India following the emergence of JAMMAT E ISLAM in Bangladesh politics shortly after Sheikh Hasina’s demise in August 2024. The Seven Sisters of India are now again under threat of insurgency, as they were in the previous age, particularly between 2001 and 2006. The Chattagram hill tracts are likewise at risk of being assaulted by local militias. As we previously noted, the ISI and JAMAAT had a role in destabilising North East India by leveraging Bangladeshi land, and Pakistani intelligence is still attempting to divide India into many pieces. Both JAMAAT and ISI collaborate in the anti-Indian campaign, and this mentality renders them dependent on one another.
The grenade attack attempt on Sheikh Hasina in 2004 was prepared by ISI and JAMAAT, but was approved by the Home Minister of the BNP-JAMAAT government, Luthfurzaman Babor, and the BNP’s Co-Chairman, Tareq Rahman. Tareq Rahman, who was mentioned before as an kleptocratic leader by few American envoys at that time and his connection to that attack was assured by the main accused, mufti Abdul Hannan. However, recently the Bangladesh Judiciary department exempted him from that charge which is seriously under question and considered as a motivated verdict by several political specialists.
Mufti Abdul Hannan, the terrorist and leader of Bangladesh’s HUJI (Horkat ul Jihad Bangladesh) branch, confessed in a video about his links to ISI and JAMAAT and how they outlined plans to kill Sheikh Hasina, and the video went viral. It was apparent that throughout Sheikh Hasina’s government, the relationship between the two countries was solid, and various complex issues such as enclave exchange and sea boundaries were resolved. So JAMAAT and ISI attacked Hasina due to her close relations with India, whereas BJP or Congress, but she could manage both at the same time.
According to BBC News, Hannan went to Pakistan, then Afghanistan, in 1988, and joined the war against the Soviets after concluding his ISI training. He suffered additional injuries in the battle and received proper care in Peshawar’s hospital. Even the explosive device that HUJI used to assassinate Sheikh Hasina originated from Pakistan, as those were ‘Arges’ grenades made in Austria but not accessible in the subcontinent. Likewise, these Arges grenades were mostly employed by North East Indian militants. It reveals beyond a doubt the links between ISI, JAMAAT, and North East Indian militants.
Even those who planned and collaborators who founded the anti-quota movement in July 2024 converted it into a huge protest to overthrow Hasina and purposely use anti-India sentiment to demonstrate that 1971 was an Awami League blunder. Furthermore, shortly after Hasina’s demise, the Pakistani foreign minister issued a welcome speech to the interim government of Bangladesh, and later the adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh spoke about developing a strong bilateral connection with Pakistan. We have also seen that the Pakistani High Commissioner and the Ameer of JAMAAT E ISLAM entered into the bargain on the last Armed Forces Day in 2024.
What is the precise meaning of Sheikh Hasina’s remark, and what has she done for India and how? The solution rests in understanding the role of ISI and its assistance for Indian and Bangladeshi insurgent groups. The truth is that seven NorthEast Indian states and Hill Tracts of Bangladesh were in turmoil and on the verge of massive hostilities as a result of those insurgent groups, as well as ISI interference through JAMAAT-E Islam to create destabilization in Indian borders, which complicated the situation not only for India but also for Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina successfully completed her mission to rid Bangladesh of terrorism and militancy by removing ULFA and other insurgent groups from Bangladesh and its territory close to the Indian border, as well as handing over the general secretary of ULFA, Anup Chetia, to India after taking control in 2009. India also comprehended why peace in Bangladesh is crucial to them. Additionally, they have come to feel that prosperity and modernization for Bangladesh imply no instability for India. Sheikh Hasina has also demonstrated that she is consistently opposed to radical political parties such as JAMAAT and groups such as ISI.
The Jamaat and ISI Combination of political influence, ideological extremism, and connections to militant groups makes it a significant threat to stability in the Indian subcontinent. Their ability to mobilize support and foster radical ideologies poses challenges to secular governance and social harmony in the region.
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