A little over 50 years ago, Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rehman, a Bengali-speaking officer in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), laid down his life during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. For that, he was awarded Bangladesh’s highest gallantry award ‘Bir Shreshto.’
Now, five decades later, Bangladesh is overcoming the distances – both physical and emotional – with its former tormentor, Pakistan.
India, which played an instrumental role in Bangladesh’s quest for freedom in the 1971 war, has all the reasons to worry. From discussing the sale of Chinese-Pakistan-built fighter jets to Dhaka to sharing intelligence, the two countries are experiencing a historic thawing in their relationship.
Bangladesh Air Force pilots are being seen in the cockpit of the Chinese-Pakistan jointly developed fighter JF-17. In February 2025, Pakistan Army officials will train the Bangladesh Army, and Dhaka will participate in the “Aman 2025” joint naval exercises in Karachi in the Arabian Sea.
In a potential red flag for the security of India’s northeastern states, the top Pakistan spy is in Bangladesh, and a potential intelligence-sharing network is expected between the two countries.
For the first time in several decades, the head of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), visited Bangladesh. ISI chief Lt Gen Asim Malik arrived in Dhaka via Dubai, where he was received by Lt Gen Muhammad Faizur Rahman, Quarter Master General (QMG) of the Bangladesh Army. Lt. Gen Rahman is known for his leanings towards Islamists.
The ISI Chief arrived in Dhaka on January 21. While the news outlets in Bangladesh remain tight-lipped about the visit’s agenda, there have been murmurs about an intelligence network being established between the two countries. This does not augur well for the peace and security of the northeastern states of India.
The Pakistani officials were in Bangladesh’s Rangpur district, which is close to India’s ‘Chicken Neck.’ The ‘Chicken’s Neck’ is the narrow land corridor that connects India’s northeast with the rest of the country. Rangpur district is just 130 kilometers from Siliguri, an important Indian military hub.
Later, the Pakistani officials were expected to be taken to sensitive Chittagong Hill Tracts in a Bangladesh Army helicopter.
“The rapid Bangladeshi and Pakistani army officers’ visits at this time is rather surprising. It indicates a hurried move to achieve a military-security objective within a short period of time. However, there is no knowing what the Indian response to these back-to-back meetings and their likely objectives on the ground (in Bangladesh) will have in the coming weeks and months,” a retired Bangladeshi general, requesting anonymity, was quoted by NorthEast News.
Indian policymakers believe that Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) had used Bangladesh’s territory to train Islamic extremists to fight its proxy war against India in the region.
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who had to flee the country following the ‘Monsoon Revolution’ in August 2024, has been instrumental in helping India curb extremism in the North East. India and Bangladesh took giant strides in three areas- transferring wanted criminals and counterterrorism, disrupting arms supply, and land border management.
Between the years 2009 and 2015, Bangladesh handed over more than half a dozen senior leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), including the group’s general secretary, Anup Chetia; its chairman, Arabinda Rajkhowa; foreign secretary Sashadhar Choudhury; finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika; and deputy chief of military operations Raju Barua.
In 2023, when the peace accord was signed between the Leaders of the insurgent group ULFA and the Indian government, the rebel leaders accepted that the crackdown against the Indian insurgent groups by the “pro-India” Awami League government in Bangladesh pushed them towards no option but to join the peace talks with the government in 2011.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the ULFA rebels had established links with Pakistan’s ISI and the Afghan Mujahideen. At least 200 ULFA activists are said to have received training in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Seized documents and interrogation of some arrested activists revealed that the Defense Forces Intelligence (DFI) of Bangladesh had also trained ULFA cadres in the Sylhet district.
ISI has also helped ULFA leaders, including Paresh Barua, to procure multiple passports. Several ULFA cadres have also reportedly received arms training from the ISI at various training centers in Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border. The training included courses in the use of rocket launchers, explosives, and assault weapons.
The top ULFA leadership, with the help of the Pakistani High Commission in Bangladesh, would travel to Karachi, from where they would be taken to the terrorist training centers run by the ISI. ULFA had also announced its support for Pakistan during the Kargil war against India. Paresh Baruah had been regularly visiting Karachi since 1992-93.
Now, the situation in Bangladesh could raise the bargaining power for the Paresh Baruah-led ULFA faction, which is against talks and is holding out from the jungles along the India-Myanmar border. There are some reports that he might be operating from China.
A high court bench in Bangladesh has already reduced the death sentence of Paresh Barua to life in the 2004 Chittagong arms-haul case. It was one of the largest weapons seizures in India’s neighborhood, and it took place in the port city of Chittagong.
The consignment of 10 truckloads of illegal arms and ammunition included 4,930 firearms, 27,020 grenades, 840 rocket launchers, 300 rockets, 2,000 grenade launching tubes, 6,392 magazines, and over 1.1 million bullets.
The weapons were believed to have been smuggled from China to be delivered to insurgent groups in India’s northeastern states.
Insurgency in Manipur may also witness a spike. The elimination of safe havens in Myanmar’s civil war-torn country was one of the reasons the Meitei-dominated United National Liberation Front (UNLF) signed a ceasefire deal with the government and surrendered in hundreds in November 2023. The UNLF’s anti-talks section and other unhappy members may now find a new home in Bangladesh.
Hasina’s Ouster Could Be Disastrous For India
Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government, has been giving India a cold shoulder. While he met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif three times in four months, he is yet to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Since 2018, there have been no direct flights between Pakistan and Bangladesh, separated by 1500 kilometers of Indian territory. For years, Pakistanis could not get visas for Bangladesh except in rare cases, as stringent security clearance requirements from different state agencies made travel practically impossible.
Bangladesh’s interim government has eased visa requirements, and Pakistan has reciprocated by removing visa fees and security clearances for Bangladeshi travelers. In the meantime, the two countries are working towards restarting the flights.
The first direct cargo ship from Pakistan docked at Bangladesh’s Chittagong port in November 2024. The establishment of the direct maritime link between the two countries was preceded by Bangladesh easing import restrictions on Pakistani goods in September.
Earlier, goods from Pakistan required a mandatory 100 percent physical inspection on arrival.
Bangladesh: A Window To India’s North East
Apart from security, the connectivity to India’s northeast will likely suffer because of the New Delhi-Dhaka estrangement. Under Sheikh Hasina’s government, the two countries worked towards increasing connectivity between India’s northeast region and Bangladesh. And all can come to naught considering the growing distance between the two countries.
North Eastern states of India consist of a group of eight landlocked states (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur, and Sikkim), of which Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam share borders with Bangladesh. These states are connected to mainland India through the 22-kilometre-wide Siliguri Corridor (popularly known as the Chicken’s Neck).
India’s cooperation with Bangladesh was not only in the sphere of security but also brought economic windfall to the North Eastern states.
Bangladesh’s decision to grant transit to India and the decision to set up border markets and establish road and rail connectivity with Northeast India have economically (and demographically) connected the region to mainland India.
In 2023, the two countries launched the projects for the Akhaura-Agartala cross-border rail link, the Khulna-Mongla port rail line, and unit II of the Maitree super thermal power plant. The Akhaura-Agartala cross-border rail link connected India’s northeast to Bangladesh by rail for the first time. Connected to Bangladesh’s Chittagong port, the link has been planned to boost tourism and trade in the North-Eastern region of India.
The 64.7-km Khulna-Mongla port railway line connects Bangladesh’s second-largest port to the country’s rail network for the first time. It is also connected to India via the Petrapole cross-border rail link.
This connectivity served as a lifeline during the COVID-19 pandemic, when more than 4,000 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen was transported to Bangladesh.
