OPED By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
Several Western nations, including the United States and Britain, are conspiring to create a Christian state, taking parts of Bangladesh, Myanmar, and even India.
With this notorious agenda, they have secretly joined hands with the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) and several regional insurgency groups, including Paresh Baruah, the kingpin of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina disclosed this when she told leaders of the 14-party alliance that a plot is on to carve out “a Christian state like East Timor,” taking parts from Bangladesh and Myanmar. She refrained from mentioning the name of India.
She also said a white man offered her a hassle-free reelection in the 7 January polls provided she allowed a foreign country to establish an air base in Bangladesh territory. Here again, the Bangladesh Prime Minister did not name the nationality of that “white man.”
Sheik Hasina mentioned that business activities have been going through the Bay and the Indian Ocean since ancient times. “Many have their eyes on this place. There is no controversy here, no conflict. I won’t let that happen. This is also one of my crimes [in their eyes]”, she said.
About the proposal for the airbase, the premier said, “The offer came from a white man. It may appear that it is aimed at only one country, but it is not. I know where else they intend to go. There will be more trouble. But don’t worry about it. “If I allowed a certain country to build an airbase in Bangladesh, then I would have had no problem.”
Although the Prime Minister did not mention the name of the country that wants to establish an airbase in Bangladesh, it is well-assumed that the name of that country is the US. For many years, Washington has been eyeing St. Martin Island, a small island (area only 3 km2) in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, about 9 km south of the tip of the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf peninsula, forming the southernmost part of the country.
Earlier, in June 2023, there was a rumor in Dhaka stating Washington was demanding St. Martin Island in exchange for the favor of the ruling Awami League government. Later, during a press conference, Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the US Department of State, asserted that the United States has never engaged in any discussions regarding taking control of St Martin’s Island or has any intention to do so.
During a parliamentary discussion on June 14, 2023, Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, alleged that the United States is after Saint Martin’s Island and that the new US visa policy is part of a strategy for “regime change.”
He said, “The US wants Saint Martin’s Island, and they want Bangladesh in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). They are doing everything to destabilize the current government”.
On June 19, 2023, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President Hasanul Haque Inu expressed his concerns, questioning whether the US is meddling in Bangladesh’s affairs for the sake of democracy or for control of Saint Martin’s Island.
Inu said, “It’s time for us to think about the reason for America’s over-enthusiasm. Is it Democracy or Saint Martin’s Island? The United States has suddenly become very enthusiastic about Bangladesh. They actually want to make Bangladesh a playground to ‘dominate’ India”.
In 2003, then-US Ambassador Mary Ann Peters ruled out media speculation that Washington was desperate to lease a military base from Dhaka to station its forces somewhere between the Far and Middle East(s).
“The United States has no plans, no requirement, and no desire for a military base on St. Martin’s Island, Chittagong, or anywhere else in Bangladesh,” she said on July 2, 2003, while addressing a seminar titled ‘Security of South Asia: A US Perspective’ at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS).
Whatever US State Department officials have or are saying, it is no secret to many that Washington is looking to establish a naval or air base in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, for several years, Christian missionaries, as well as Western NGOs, have been secretly working in bordering areas in Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar, such as Teknaf, Khagrachhari, Rangamati, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arakan Province, etc. with twin goals – converting Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and ethnic minorities into Christianity and preparing grounds for creation of a Christian state comprising lands belonging to Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.
Christian missionary publications have been running well-orchestrated propaganda with false claims of “Christian persecution” within these areas. They even attempt to connect the tribal population of Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar by stating, “Chin-Kuki-Mizo are a Mongol people, and today they speak related but distinct Tibeto-Burman languages.
More than one million Chin live in Myanmar, one million Mizo live in Mizoram, half a million Kuki live in Manipur, and tens of thousands of Kuki live in Bangladesh. In addition, due to the ongoing fighting between the Myanmar army and the Chin people, hundreds of thousands of Chin have fled overseas, including 80,000 in the United States”.
Countering this narratives of Christian missionaries, some analysts said, “Historically, the Kukis are known to practice Animism (worship different deities and spirits) and headhunting (hunting a human and collecting the severed head after killing the victims, sometimes more portable body parts)nowadays they following Messianic Judaism, The Bnei Menashe are composed of Chin Kuki Zo whose ancestors migrated into northeast, and in Manipur most of them came from Myanmar.
The Kukis in Manipur are also demanding to return to Israel. Mr. P.S. Haokip, who is of Burmese/Myanmar origin and also Chairman of KNA (Kuki National Army) and other insurgency groups they claimed as Kukis are the lost tribe of Israel while he has written to the Israel Prime Minister to recognize Bnei Menashe in Northeast India.
Mr. Haokip said that the Kukis are not Indian, they are just visitors; their real place is Israel and they claimed themselves as Jews the lost tribe of Israel.
In July 2023, Hindu Post in a report said, “Christian nationalist MNF govt makes ‘homeland’ call via unification of Mizo-Kuki-Chin-Zomi tribals living in Bharat, Myanmar and Bangladesh”.
Bangladesh authorities said there are external connections between the activities of the Kuki-Chin National Front and other groups in India and Myanmar. The KNF allegedly is involved in a long-standing plan to establish a separate eastern state in the region. Other analysts have described the KNF’s agenda and modus operandi in several articles.
Meanwhile, to hide their actual agenda of establishing a Christian state, leaders of KNF joined hands with an Islamist militancy outfit named Jamaat Ul Ansar Fil Hind Al Sharqiya (JAFHS), whereas the media was told that JAFHS, with military support from KNF, was trying to establish ‘Caliphate Village’ within Chittagong Hill Tract areas.
Kingpins of this dangerous group wanted to buy lands and run militancy activities under the garb of agricultural farms. They also were planning to lure local residents towards religious conversion. For this mission, JAFHS had established secret connections with several leaders of Tablighi Jamaat.
As a counterterrorism specialist, my opinion here is – that the connections or relations between the Kuki-Chin National Front and Jamaat Ul Ansar Fil Hind Al Sharqiya were purely strategic, and KNF wanted to use JAFHS in spreading terrorist acts within the targeted hilly areas in Bangladesh and India as well as Arakan State in Myanmar to simplify their real agenda of establishing a Christian state by disintegrating lands belonging to the three neighboring nations.
Once such a vicious plot is materialized – Western nations, especially the United States and Britain, would get access to the entire region by riding on its planned Christian state by using it as their vessel state. Undoubtedly, this is a serious threat to the national security of Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar – which can only be effectively confronted under the collaborative efforts of these three countries.
- Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is an internationally acclaimed multi-award-winning journalist, writer, research scholar, counterterrorism specialist, and Editor, Blitz, a newspaper publishing from Bangladesh since 2003. He regularly writes for local and international newspapers. Follow him on X @Salah_Shoaib
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