Indian design of sending its Army to Bangladesh

A Dhaka-based weekly quoted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Special Envoy Satinder K Lamba as saying on April 5 (2012) that terrorists and insurgents continue to operate from Bangladesh, despite the government's efforts to contain them. "There's a need to sustain the current levels of cooperation to jointly eradicate the menace of insurgency, terrorism and militancy from our soil," he said, while delivering the keynote address at the Fourth India-Bangladesh Security Dialogue, organized by the Observer Research Foundation.

The weekly alleged “After successfully extracting series of one-sided benefit from the current ruling party in Bangladesh, policymakers in New Delhi has now stepped into its next phase of plan of putting pressure on the government of Sheikh Hasina in allowing Indian troops to enter Bangladesh territory for starting joint operations against terrorists, insurgents, militants and criminal elements.” Neither India nor Bangladesh government yet objected Lamba’s assertion, what is unfortunate as well as awesome. Silence of the concerned partners signals that the message of Lamba bears some merit.

The excuse that Lamba made is lame and unacceptable in one hand, as well as worrisome and disturbing on the other. It is not for the first time that Indians uttered such irresponsible and baseless allegation against Bangladesh, but earlier never nakedly dared to say, what it says now, that Indian army is needed to be stationed in Bangladesh. For decades, India keeps raising such baseless allegation even mentioning the locations (along with maps) of the alleged terrorists’ camps. Bangladesh repeatedly searched and investigated those locations and found that those sites were either paddy field, or stadium, or school, or tank or river, or market, and so on and so forth. Bangladesh even invited India to send its concerned personnel to see for themselves and conduct joint investigation to justify their allegation whether there was such camps in the locations/addresses what they officially sent to Bangladesh. But India never accepted that offer.

Let us accept for the sake of debate that Indian allegation is genuine. Still will it be justified to send Indian Army to Bangladesh? Will the international community, not to speak of the Bangladeshi people, welcome such intervention under any excuse? India should, at least, put pressure on Bangladesh to expel those terrorists, if any, from her territory. India could even raise the issue before the regional forum like SAARC and international body UNO. India can even seek international observers to oversee Bangladesh-India border. But India cannot march or push its soldiers to Bangladesh availing any controversial treaties or commitments, as they don’t ventilate the hopes and aspiration of the people of Bangladesh. Bangladeshi people will never agree to sell out their sovereignty and independence to any power under the cover of friendship.

It is known to all that India itself is the safe harbor of the terrorists and secessionists who operate from India to her neighboring countries. India shelters and assists the Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Burmese, Nepali, Tibetan, Pakistani, Afghan and Maldivian terrorists, secessionists and anti-social elements. India provides them shelter and training inside its territory, other than money, arms and ammunitions and explosives. None of these countries ever argued to send troops to India to wipe out those terrorists or secessionists.

It needs to be mentioned if any terrorist group exists in Bangladesh, they are simply India-sponsored and India-financed. All types of arms and ammunitions, explosives that were recovered in Bangladesh on several occasions were pushed from India. Those who belonged to JMB (Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh) and were hanged in Bangladesh confessed that they got arms and explosives and even training from Indian intelligence agencies. India started Sri Lankan civil war. It squeezes Bangladesh, destabilizes Maldives, ransacks Pakistan, weakens Nepal and disturbs Myanmar (even China sheltering and using Dalai lama since 1959).

The next question is this how the terrorists operate from Bangladesh, as India fenced most parts of its border and deployed hundreds of thousands of BSF and even Army personnel in her bordering areas. Indian BSF kills our innocent people almost daily. How do the terrorist cross the border to and from Bangladesh territory? Could BSF or Indian Army ever catch or kill even single terrorist? It is the Bangladesh government that nabbed them (freedom fighters) and handed over them to India. So India has no face to table such claim. Still if India is cocksure that such terrorists or extremists are operating from Bangladesh against India, it can simply ask the government with documents to nab the terrorists. But India has no right to put pressure on Bangladesh to allow Indian Army to enter or stay in Bangladesh.

In stead of blaming others for nursing terrorists against India, she should fix her internal problems. India’s internal adverse situation and colony-style administration fuel terrorism in India. India is a home of terrorists, extremists, fundamentalists, communists, communalists, racists. Secessionists who are active in eight states from Nagaland to Kashmir to cede their regions from Indian claws are termed as terrorists. India could not defeat them in 65-year history of India. India doesn’t have any logic to blame us for over one hundred secessionist (whom India terms as terrorists) organizations that are active in our neighboring Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh. Let India herself defeat them. It is India’s own problem. It is an illogical bid to station her troops to any country to fix her own problem. As India failed to eradicate the freedom fighters of our neighboring regions how it will do it stationing its troops in our soil.

If any Indian terrorist group is active in Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security agencies are strong enough to tackle them. Our Army personnel, under UN Peacekeeping Mission, already earned huge reputation and acclamation of the international community for their heroic role in combating terrorism in the disturbed regions around the world. They also did the same in dealing with the India-sponsored Chakma terrorists in CHT (Chittagong Hill Tracts) that India armed, financed, trained and sheltered to cede one-tenth of Bangladesh territory what is an integral part of Bangladeshi since prehistoric era. In doing so Bangladesh didn’t impose emergency, or martial law in CHT and didn’t enact any barbaric law like POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) or TADA, (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act) or UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) or AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958) or any other inhuman barbaric law what India did in case of Punjab, Kashmir, and neighboring regions of Bangladesh. Still our Army successfully contained secessionists and terrorists in CHT without Indian help. So, Bangladesh is strong enough to wipe out the Indian nationals from our soil and we don’t need Indian Army in Bangladesh as they (Indian Army) failed to subdue them in India itself. It is the duty of the Indian government not to allow the Indian terrorists to enter Bangladesh. Insurgency or terrorism or communalism in India is her internal problem and India should find its solution within her territory. Its intention to launch so-called joint operation inside Bangladesh is a laughable story and a tactic to station its troops in Bangladesh and crush the nationalist elements in order to merge Bangladesh in course of time. The short-term goal of such deployment is to keep the pro-India elements in power to reach that goal.

Now, according to Indian version, most trusted government headed by Sheikh Hasina is in power and India managed to fetch maximum one-sided key advantages virtually giving nothing to Bangladesh in exchange. Still India is not contended. India genuinely feels that if the pro-India heavyweights in Dhaka are removed, the next ruling class may not akin to the controversial covert and overt treaties what the incumbent government signed. Indian policymakers publicly declared that Bangladesh would not be allowed to get out of Indian radar anymore. This is inner why India wants to deploy its forces to continue its undesired influence and supremacy on Bangladesh. Observers opine that those who now rule Bangladesh are also desperate to remain in power and they may agree to invite Indian Army to crush the pro-nationalist opposition activists branding them as terrorists, militants and criminal elements.

Mentionable that Indian Army entered Bhutan in 2003 to dismantle ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) camps in Bhutan. But Indian Army still stays in Bhutan though there in no ULFA cadre in Bhutanese territory. India designs to act same drama in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the region. India itself sends its agents or recruits agents to create a situation to intervene in her neighboring countries. All the neighboring countries of India are the victims of India’s notorious game.

Under such circumstances, all the neighboring countries of India should form a unified coalition to thwart India’s hegemonic designs and punish her for her misdeeds. India should no longer be allowed to disturb its neighboring countries. Let all of us be united to resist this sinister demon. Let us stop and bridle it in advance to deter the emergence of unimaginable bloodshed in South Asia that will occur after India’s step to enter Bangladesh.

So far I guess the common people of Bangladesh will never welcome Indian Army to our soil. Our people will treat them as enemy army and simply resist them at any cost. This is our historical heroic tradition. We seldom welcomed foreign domination. Foreign exploiters using local tentacles temporarily succeeded in dominating us, but they were ultimately beaten back. It was the Bengalee Muslims named Titumir, Fakir Maznu Shah, Shariwat Ullah who were the first in the Subcontinent to wage anti-British resistance. The Hindus stood against the British Rule basically in early 20th century which was started to foil the partition of Bengal in 1905 that according to the Hindus was tilted to the interest of the Muslims. Anti-India sentiment now is far stronger than that of Pakistan period, as the Bangladeshis extremely annoyed and tormented at India’s ugly behavior and hegemonic policy against Bangladesh. Indian soldiers will face more ferocious and tougher resistance in Bangladesh than their Pakistani counterparts (soldiers) faced in 1971.

Indian policymakers should restudy our history and feel our psyche, our spirit and zeal for freedom. Bangladesh is not a country of Landuf Dorjee, whose annexation (of Sikkim) went unchallenged. Bangladesh is a challengeable region. Pro-India elements though rule Bangladesh, its people will not honor or welcome physical presence of Indian Army. What India gained from Bangladesh using its surrogates, will lose that once Indian Army enters Bangladesh. Moreover, our crusade against India will not remain confined to our territory; it will rather engulf our neighboring regions where people are fighting to get out of India and it will lead to the subdivision and fragmentation of India.

It will not be out of place to remind all why India designs to send its army to Bangladesh. Withdrawal of Indian troops in 1972 from Bangladesh was beyond its intention and policy. India’s former President Giani Zail Singh (1982-87) in his last interview as President with a Calcutta-based weekly ‘SUNDAY’ (July 25, 1987) mourned saying “Decision of quick withdrawal of Indian troops from Bangladesh in 1972 was not judicious one. It hampered the interest of India. We could not protect the interest of the country withdrawing our troops hurriedly.” This is the inner reason why Satinder K Lamba exposed Indian intention saying to station Indian troops in Bangladesh. Once they can enter Bangladesh will never leave it.

I earnestly appeal to all the Bangladeshi expatriates around the world to remain vigil about Indian game and play active role in mobilizing worldwide public opinion to undo Indian design. Let us bring the issue to the notice of all the international and regional forums, including the governments of the respected countries where we presently reside. Let us foil Indian design of sending its Army to Bangladesh and save our country from disaster. If such unfortunate event is allowed to occur the world will experience the worst and most horrible genocide in South Asian region that never happened earlier.

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The Indian Mutiny That Wasn't

What's behind the strange coup rumors in Delhi?

V.S. Naipul entitled his 1990 travelogue, about the constant chaos that defines the world's largest democracy, India: A Million Mutinies Now. Yet for all the warning signs that India gives off -- a weak political system regularly seized by policy paralysis and riven by corruption, public fury at incompetent politicians, large armed forces, and intelligence agencies active in domestic politics -- the country has been wholly successful in keeping the lid on its military. In fact, the revelations this week of troop movements around New Delhi and a panicked civilian response that have spooked some Indians into thinking there was a failed coup attempt illustrates both the weaknesses of the Indian system and the sheer improbability of a military challenge to civilian rule. 

The Indian Express, a respected English-language broadsheet, alleged in a story published this week that on the evening of Jan. 16, Indian intelligence spotted important military units moving toward Delhi. No one had notified the Defense Ministry, as protocol requires. Unlike in opaque China, shaken by coup rumors of its own a few weeks ago, the Indian Express released a blow-by-blow account of what the paper alleges transpired in India: The defense secretary -- the department's most senior civilian bureaucrat -- rushed back from Malaysia and summoned the army's director of military operations. The prime minister was informed "at the crack of dawn." A contingency plan, developed in response to the mutiny of Sikh units in 1984, was activated and lookouts alerted. Later, a terror alert was issued to hold up the movement of army convoys. 

Speaking to The Hindu, a senior intelligence official countered that "at no stage was the possibility of a coup, or any attempt to overawe the government, ever discussed," but, he conceded, "we worried about indiscipline, or a show of support [for the army chief] by some elements -- and it's our job to consider those possibilities." While it's still too early to say for sure, it appears that India's notoriously skittish civilian leadership has cracked down on its officers once again.

India's officer corps is bound by one of the tightest leashes in the democratic world -- by design. India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, saw the military as an instrument of British repression and reviled what he saw as its culture of violence and obedience. In the 1950s, rumors of a coup -- compounded by Ayub Khan's takeover next door in Pakistan -- were one factor that prompted Nehru loyalist Krishna Menon's elevation to the position of defense minister to strengthen the civilians' already iron-clad grip over the military establishment. Military-to-military ties, particularly with the United States, were viewed with great suspicion for fear that officers would grow empowered and absorb subversive political ideas. 

Yet paradoxically, the civilians have thrust expanding domestic roles onto the soldiers. Out of 17 major Indian Army campaigns between 1947 and 1995, a dozen were within India's borders. Between 1982 and 1989, the army was deployed to assist the civilian authorities no less than 721 times. All this took place during a period of such growing political instability that Atul Kohli, a scholar of India at Princeton, subtitled his 1990 book "India's Growing Crisis of Governability." The civilians appeared not to mind empowering generals as state governors and advisors, as long as their forces stayed in far-flung parts of the country. Over the past decade, the number of paramilitary troops has leapt upwards and relieved much of the burden, but domestic army deployments haven't stopped.

India's neighbors Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan have all experienced coups in the last half-century, sparked by military empowerment and political crises. How has India been able to avoid this fate? For a start, India's army is too dispersed, too diverse, too content, and too professional to challenge democratic rule. One comprehensive study of civil-military relations in India by Aburba Kundu, a scholar at Britain's Anglia Ruskin University, concludes that "commissioned Indian officers will never instigate a coup" [italics in original] because senior military officers possess a deep-seated professional ethos and commitment to democracy. Paul Staniland, a professor at the University of Chicago, also points out that "the difference between India and Pakistan is that Indian institutions and legitimacy have not crumbled" even if they've occasionally looked fragile. And although Indian officers have chafed under these restrictions, they've almost always expressed their resentment in a constitutional and proper fashion. 

Despite this, the civilian leadership remains unconvinced of the army's trustworthiness. Brookings Institution scholar Stephen Cohen, an authority on the Indian Army, has written that "conversations with senior intelligence officers indicate that they have detected at least three major coup attempts by Indian generals," the most recent in the late 1980s. Cohen notes, scathingly, that "there is no credible evidence of such plots, but insecure politicians and bureaucrats, many of whom have a stereotyped image of the military, listen to these warnings."    

Military and civilian leaders do get along better now than in the past. According to a book by Stephen Peter Rosen, a professor at Harvard, the military in the 1990s had little idea of how many nuclear weapons India possessed or how they might be used in wartime (sealed instructions for nuclear use were given to a theater commander, only to be opened when a mushroom cloud appeared). Today, military officers are increasingly plugged into such policymaking -- a retired three-star rank officer now sits in the Prime Minister's Office to deal with nuclear affairs. 

But when tensions flare, the Indian army is soon put in its place. On the day of the troop movements, India's army chief, General V.K. Singh, had taken the unprecedented step of suing the government to allow him to serve for another year (he claims he's a year younger than official records, which would allow him another year before mandatory retirement). Last week, a letter from Singh to the prime minister was leaked to the press. The army chief, implicitly blaming civilian fecklessness, complained that the state of the military "is indeed alarming," that the army's entire tank fleet lacks "critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks," and that he judged India's air defense system to be "97% obsolete." 

As Nitin Pai, fellow at the Takshashila Institution, notes, the Indian Express's story "could not have been filed without the approval of the highest levels of the Indian government." Clearly, some in the government and civil service were keen on showing the military -- and, specifically, the rebellious army chief -- who's boss. Singh is likely to eke out the remaining month of his term, but as a lame-duck army chief who has lost the confidence of his government. 

India's previous episode of civil-military rupture was similarly characterized by an overreaction from apprehensive civilians. In 1998, navy chief Adm. Vishnu Bhagwat complained publicly about the cabinet's effort to appoint a deputy naval chief. In response, the admiral's intended successor was secretly flown to Delhi in a plane operated by India's foreign intelligence agency. When he arrived, Bhagwat was dismissed and the new officer sworn in to replace him. As Anit Mukherjee, Research Fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis, explains, this was part of a "plan, conceived and executed by a small circle of Indian politicians, bureaucrats, selected military officers and intelligence agencies." The army and air force chiefs weren't even told until the last moment. 

Successive committees, going back decades, have urged India to reform the way it manages its military; recommending in particular that the headquarters of the three service arms better integrate with the Ministry of Defense to improve communication and cooperation between officer corps and civilian bureaucrats. The irony is that the civilians have resisted making these much-needed changes for fear of unleashing a politically influential military. Their resistance has resulted in what Mukherjee has called an "absent dialogue" between those in uniform and their political masters. It was that absence of dialogue that contributed to the errors of communication and judgment during January's late-night crisis in Delhi. India may still be wracked by political and social mutinies, but the Indian Army isn't going to lead any of them. 

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India plans to send troops inside Bangladesh

After successfully extracting series of one-sided benefit from the current ruling party in Bangladesh, policymakers in New Delhi has now stepped into its next phase of plan of putting pressure on the government of Sheikh Hasina in allowing Indian troops to enter Bangladesh territory for starting joint operations against terrorists, insurgents, militants and criminal elements. This hidden agenda of the Indian government became exposed when Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's Special Envoy Satinder K Lamba said on April 5 that terrorists and insurgents continue to operate from Bangladesh, despite the government's efforts to contain them.

"There's a need to sustain the current levels of cooperation to jointly eradicate the menace of insurgency, terrorism and militancy from our soil," he said, while delivering the keynote address at the Fourth India-Bangladesh Security Dialogue, organised by the Observer Research Foundation.

Lamba said it was well-known that terrorists, insurgents, militants and criminal elements respect no civilian law and territorial boundaries.

"Some of these groups and their associated agencies continue to have their hideouts and network of fake Indian currency notes in Bangladesh," he said.

He said that India greatly appreciated the efforts of the Bangladesh government in taking actions against such elements operating from that country. Noting that three security-related agreements have already been signed between the two countries, he hoped the Extradition Treaty will be finalised soon to complete the process of putting in place the framework for cooperation on security-related matters.

Lamba said due to the 'porous' nature of the India-Bangladesh border, there has been considerable cross-border criminal activity, including illegal trade in arms and explosives, counterfeit currency, trafficking in narcotics and women and children.

"These problems pose a threat to the social and economic well-being of both India and Bangladesh," he said.

Meanwhile, after the recent seizure of 10 million Indian rupees from Bangladesh by a team of Rapid Action Battalion [RAB] with almost simultaneous bust of fake Indian currency note racket in Nepal, Indian intelligence agencies including Research & Analytical Wing [RAW] is continuing to claim that Pakistan is pumping in counterfeit Indian currency through Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia rather than the traditional routes of Bangladesh and Dubai.

It said, "As part of the tactical switch, Pakistan is also using nationals of the South-east Asian countries to avoid detection. As always, the plot for India's economic subversion is being executed through Mumbai underworld."

On April 4, 2012, acting on the inputs provided by India, the Nepal Police arrested a Vietnamese woman with fake Indian currency note worth RS 9.8 million at Tribhuwan International Airport in Kathmandu. Later, Indian intelligence agencies claimed "the consignment - neatly stuffed in high-end liquor bottles - was delivered to her at Vietnam by conduits working for Pakistani handlers. The consignment was so smartly concealed that it would have gone unnoticed had it not been for specific information provided by India."

The accused, whose name has been withheld by the agency as investigations are still on, had stuffed the currency notes in liquor bottles and packed them neatly in her check-in baggage. To avoid scrutiny she had paid legitimate duty on the liquor.

Sources within Indian intelligence agencies said the woman took a flight from Vietnam and reached Kathmandu via Bangkok. Her arrest has not only revealed a new modus operandi, but also a new route [Pakistan to Nepal via Vietnam] of pumping fake Indian currency note into India.

The sources said the consignment was routed through Vietnam as traditional fake Indian currency note-pumping routes like Bangladesh and Dubai are always on security agencies' radar for. "There is greater screening of passengers coming via Dubai or Bangladesh. One would generally not suspect a Vietnamese coming from her country to be carrying fake currency," said an Intelligence official.

Indian intelligence agencies said, "Pakistan may be using underworld links to pump in money as several dons from Mumbai are now holed up in various South-east Asian nations. Even Dawood Ibrahim has a wide network of operatives spanning Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Sitting in Karachi, he controls a major share of over US$ 2.5 million fake Indian currency note racket in India."

The source further said that the notes are of very high quality, and match with other fake currency consignments coming from Pakistan seized earlier.

A senior intelligence official in India said, "Counterfeiters keep reinventing themselves. The racket had deliberately used a woman as a carrier to avoid suspicion. For instance, the Vietnamese woman had stuffed high-end liquor bottles with fake Indian currency note and neatly packed them. She then paid the required duty on it which made it a legitimate consignment. That is why despite the consignment being in her check-in baggage no one in Vietnam or in Bangkok suspected anything amiss with her luggage."

The official added, "Recently agencies busted a racket in which fake currency was concealed in cigarettes. The accused had removed tobacco and rolled notes into the empty space."

It was not clear as to whether the IRS 10 million consignments, which had been recently seized in Bangladesh by RAB were counterfeit or genuine. Crime experts opined that such seizure might have been planned by the Indian intelligence agencies to justify their demand of starting joint operations of the Indian and Bangladeshi soldiers as well as intelligence agencies with the objective of eliminating anti-Indian operatives in Bangladesh.

They said, Indian authorities might be planning to take fullest advantage of current 'friendly' attitude of the government in Dhaka in ultimately establishing presence of Indian forces within Bangladeshi soil. 

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Bangladesh envoy to India advocates Tipaimukh barrage!

Bangladesh high commissioner to New Delhi [India], Ahmed Tariq Karim has publicly exposed his actions, which goes against the interest of Bangladesh, simply for the reason of his 'special affiliations' with Indians. 

The Bangladeshi envoy, addressing apprehensions within has rejected the contention that the proposed Tipaimukh hydro-electricity project in Manipur would be harmful to Bangladesh and has expressed interest in benefiting from it by deriving power. Sharing India's view, Bangladesh High Commissioner Tariq Ahmed Karim has said the project was "not the cataclysm waiting to happen", as being projected by a section in Bangladesh opposed to the plant.

"Tipaimukh is not the cataclysm waiting to happen, that it is made out to be."

"It is a hydro-electric dam that will not divert any water [of Barak river] anywhere; it will not also withhold the flow of water," he has said.

"It [the project] will do what hydro-electric dam does: it will first fill up water to a certain level, then discharge it continuously at a certain force in order to comply with the logic and end goal of such projects generate electricity."

"It will also help in mitigating floods," Tariq Karim has written in an article 'Bangladesh-India Relation: My Vision of the way Forward' on the occasion of the Independence Day of Bangladesh. This article was put into special supplement published by the Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi, at the cost of a large sum of money.

He expressed the hope that a joint study by the two sides will clear the air and "even convince our naysayers that it is in our interest to be a shareholder in this project and get some power from it".

Following publication of the above mentioned article of the Bangladeshi envoy, several important political analysts in India have even expressed utter surprise seeing an ambassador of a sovereign nation like Bangladesh is echoing the voice of the opponent interest groups of the nation, at the cost of the wealth of the citizen of Bangladesh. They feel the opinion of the envoy not only goes against the interest of Bangladesh but also it could even be considered as a huge betrayal by the envoy with the nation.

There has been strong opposition to the Tipaimukh barrage by most of the people of Bangladesh as well as think-tanks [including environmentalists] and large political parties such as Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who are rightly alleging that the barrage would curtail availability of water downstream of Barak River which flows into north-eastern Bangladesh and affect its ecology.

Bangladesh high commissioner Ahmed Tariq Karim not only voiced in favor of India's interest centering Tipaimukh Barrage but also suggested Dhaka [Bangladesh side] in having 'patience' in getting the Tista water sharing agreement signed. He said, ""As for Teesta, let me assert: it will happen. We need to have a little patience."

Commenting on the statement of the Bangladeshi envoy in India, a senior journalist said, "We cannot even imagine in our wildest dream that our envoy could play the role of our nation's enemy, simply because of his hidden connections with India. What Tariq Karim wrote are not only unacceptable but it is certainly a heinous and nefarious attempt to undermine the interest of Bangladesh. The dubious role of Tariq Karim now clearly exposes the way the current government in Bangladesh are gradually pushing the country towards the fate of Sikkim. Patriotic forces in Bangladesh should raise voice against this man and in course of time, sedition and treason charges should not only be brought against Ahmed Tariq Karim, but also against his associates within and outside the Bangladesh ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

BY :   Sohail Choudhury.

A fiasco of RAW psy-war to frame Bangladesh

Bangladesh has been subjected to relentless barrages of psychological warfare, astutely even if vilely, conducted by the Indian external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Sometimes the targets are individuals, sometimes political parties, sometimes business houses, and finally the target is the nation-state itself. The hidden purpose is always to create confusion and to implant seeds of doubt and diffidence in the public mind in Bangladesh.

 

 The suggestion sought to be conveyed to both people in this country and to the world at-large is that Bangladesh lacks both merit and resources, as well as honourable leaders to be able to survive as an independent nation-state. Right after independence, RAW recruits of the Indian intelligentsia never tired of whispering to the ears of gullible Bangladeshi economists and politicians that Bangladesh is not a viable country economically, and can only exist by jumping on the Indian bandwagon as a client state or be Sikkimised. 

The-then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s faux pas that Bangladesh was a “bottomless basket” case for international charity continued to be rubbed in year after year, claiming invasion by crores of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants burdening Indian economy, by the RAW-inspired media circles in India. Bangladesh not only survived well over the turn of the new millennium, but also showed signs of steady growth under the socio-economic dynamics and productive enterprise of its human resource. RAW strategists may have therefore become keenly aware that relative success and prosperity of Bangladesh, geographically in its pot-belly protruding eastward, are likely to fuel further simply by its “small is beautiful” example, the simmering separatism in the Northeast Indian states. It is thus no wonder that RAW strategists have now not only stepped up its machinery of psychological warfare, but also putting into effect a carrot-and stick policy of physical denial and destabilisation on its “friendly” government now incumbent in Bangladesh. 

 

Its insistence on continuing shoot-to-kill policy of Indian BSF at our borders turned ‘killing fields’, its dilly-dallying over the agreed Teesta water-sharing treaty, its unilateral undertaking of Tipaimukh dam to the detriment of Surma-Kushiyara-Meghna basin ecology and economy of Bangladesh, its revival of the Indian river-linking master plan to divert Brahmaputra waters to South India, and “political” warming-up for adverse revision of even the unequal 30 year Ganges Water-sharing Treaty on presumed “seepage” favouring Bangladesh at Farakka, appear designed to serve that RAW strategy of keeping Bangladesh hard-pressed under the thumb of Indian power. That strategy is embarrassing the India-friendly government in Bangladesh to no mean proportions. 

 

Latest fiasco

In psy-war, a latest fiasco for embarrassment of the incumbent government has been caused by a scoop news almost simultaneously orchestrated in foreign as well as local media by one misinformation agent alone. The real information relates to Pakistan Supreme Court’s summons served on former ISI Chief, Lieutenant General (retired) Asad Durrani over alleged abuse of ISI funds for perversion of free and fair elections in 1991 by surreptitious financing of some chosen election candidates and political parties. In his testimony before the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Durrani disclosed the list of political leaders and parties who were beneficiaries of such illicit funding. Reportedly one such political party was Baluch National Party, others were mostly prominent leaders of Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif and some Islamist parties. It was an internal matter of Pakistan over which its supreme court was adjudicating. RAW brainwave picked up the matter of Asad Durrani’s testimony to plant a fake story on Khaleej Times of Dubai that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party received funds from Pakistan’s ISI for electioneering in Bangladesh in 1991.

 

Government leaders in Bangladesh, including the Prime Minister, immediately started a campaign vilifying and taunting the Leader of the Opposition and her party claiming that she bought power in 1991 by money from “those who we defeated in 1971”, and that she should “go back to Pakistan.” BNP protested vehemently and challenged the scoop’s authenticity. But fake repeats of the story and chorus of condemnation of BNP and its chairperson continued inside Bangladesh parliament and in a section of national and foreign media. An end has been put to the episode by a personal interview of Lieutenant General (retd.) Asad Durrani published in a Dhaka daily stating in unequivocal terms that his testimony did not include the name of Bangladesh Nationalist Party or for that matter any foreign beneficiary at all for disbursal of ISI funds. It was entirely an internal matter of Pakistan. (Holiday’s Abdur Rahman Khan also interviewed Durrani Thursday and his report appears in today’s issue)   

 

The manner in which the news fabrication took place has been serially described in an expose in weeklyblitz.net on March 20 as under (abridged): 

 

“Dipanjan Roy Chowdhury, a RAW recruit who also happens to be the Delhi correspondent of a leading daily of Dhaka, was summoned by some top brasses of Research and Analytical Wing on March 2, 2012 and was escorted to New Delhi headquarters of the Indian spy agency, wherefrom he wrote the report for Khaleej Times and it was later sent to the Indian-born owners of the Dubai based newspaper with the special instruction of publishing it prominently. Subsequently, when the fabricated news appeared in Khaleej Times, some influential members of the Indian government phoned editors of two of the leading daily newspapers in Dhaka, suggesting them to give “best treatment” to the Khaleej Times news. 

 

Of the two, the vernacular daily put further colour on the report by claiming that the news item has been published in Pakistani newspaper The News as well as a leading business daily The Business Recorder. 

 

The same Dipanjan Roy Chowdhury in his bi-line story published in the Indian newspaper the Daily Mail [March 15, 2012] once again played his nasty news twisting game and turned the amount from Pakistan Rupees 50 million to 500 million, though in Khaleej Times he quoted the ISI boss giving Pakistan Rupees 50 million to Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

 

Again on March 16, 2012, the same writer wrote in India Today, ‘Recently a UAE-based daily had alleged that ISI paid Rs.50 crore to BNP chairperson and former PM Khaleda Zia ahead of the 1991 elections in which the BNP won and formed the government.’

 

Dipanjon Roy Chowdhury in his reports in India Today and some other newspapers in India never mentioned that the source of Khaleej Times reports was none but himself. Subsequently, the Bangladeshi state-owned news agency, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha [BSS] simply copied the entire report of India Today, without verifying the authenticity of the report.

 

Delhi press club rumour has it that Dipanjon Roy Chowdhury was invited by the Bangladeshi high commissioner in New Delhi and was ‘compensated’ for such ‘excellent report’. Both met at a down-town pub in New Delhi discreetly, where the Bangladeshi envoy went incognito. One of the members of the Bangladeshi ‘special family’ flew to India to meet Dipanjon Roy Chowdhury for expressing ‘gratitude’ on the Khaleej Times report.” Bangladeshi foreign minister Dr. Dipu Moni, when asked by newsmen in Dhaka about the source of that the ruling party’s claim the main opposition received ISI money, frankly admitted: “What we know is from a report run by the Khaleej Times. We have asked for a transcript of the testimony of concerned ISI Chief in Pakistan Supreme Court. We can give further information only after getting the transcript in our hands.”

 

The weeklyblitz.net claimed that the copy of transcript already reached the Bangladesh High Commission in Islamabad on March 19, 2012 and the copy was subsequently sent to the foreign ministry. After seeing the real affidavit, the top brasses in Bangladesh Awami League have reportedly decided to “kill” the issue. 

BY :   Sadeq Khan.