Pahalgam fallout scratches Bangladesh

SALEEM SAMAD

The deadly massacre of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir erupted a fresh crisis between Pakistan and India, the two nuke-armed neighbors. The sectarian terrorists or Islamic jihadists deliberately targeted the Hindus only.

India has accused Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism” after the murderers carried out the most evil attack on civilians in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir.

However, amid an escalation of tension between India and Pakistan, the regional tension has spilt over to Bangladesh.

Hours after the barbaric atrocities in Kashmir, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, postponed his scheduled visit to Bangladesh on April 27-28.

“Owing to unforeseen circumstances,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan cannot undertake the visit to Bangladesh.

However, the official statement says that fresh dates will be announced through mutual consultations.

Bangladesh officials said the first-ever visit of the Pakistani Foreign Minister in 25 years would have heightened the weak bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan.

A few more official delegations were supposed to visit each other’s capitals for the augmentation of trade, commerce, industries, investment, communication, agriculture, foreign affairs, home affairs and others.

It seems that such parleys would be delayed as the crisis has shaken the government of Pakistan after the worst carnage since the Pulwama attack in 2019.

The direct flight from Karachi-Dhaka by Fly Jinnah airline has been postponed indefinitely, said an official in Dhaka.

The fights would not commence unless the overflights over India are withdrawn, said the official.

The reason explained that the skies for overflights of Pakistan airlines to most South Asian east-bound destinations have been grounded for months to come.

The Pakistani fight for Indian capital and the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, has been stalled.

In an arbitrary decision by jealous bigwigs in Islamabad and New Delhi, scores of Indian airlines' flights over Pakistan have been shut, and rerouting the flight paths is causing immense suffering for the passengers who were booked mostly for westbound destinations.

Meanwhile, over 1,000 Bangladeshi immigrants, including women and children, were detained in a crackdown in India’s Gujarat days after the most horrible mass execution of civilians in recent times.

Efforts for the detained Bangladesh nationals in Gujarat are underway for their deportation, Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi told Indian media.

He said arrangements were made “to complete all the procedures for their deportation [to Bangladesh] as soon as possible”.

The minister, without a proper investigation, jumped to the conclusion that most of these people are involved with drug cartels and human trafficking, and two out of the four Bangladeshis arrested recently worked in sleeper cells of Al Qaeda. “A probe will be conducted into these Bangladeshis’ background and activities in Gujarat,” the junior minister stated.

Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain, briefing journalists at the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the ongoing tensions between the two rival neighbors, India and Pakistan, should be resolved through dialogue.

“Our position is very clear. We want peace in South Asia. We are aware of the longstanding rivalry between Pakistan and India. We would expect the two countries would resolve the problem through dialogue,” he said.

He reiterated that “We [Bangladesh] have good relations with both India and Pakistan.”

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 29 April 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Will Bangladesh join US-backed proxy war with Myanmar junta?

SALEEM SAMAD

In recent times, there has been a gargantuan development in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Large swatches of the Rakhine state have been occupied by the rebel Arakan Army (AA) with a political objective of confederalism of the ethnic Rakhine community.

The Rakhine state in northern Myanmar borders 270 kilometers of Bangladesh. The battle-hardened foot soldiers of AA political objective is to achieve regional autonomy of the ethnic Rakhine community.

The AA, fighting since 2014, have seized control of 13 of the 17 townships in Rakhine State, including all townships along the border with Bangladesh. However, the state capital, Sittwe, and the port city of Kyaukpyu remain under the control of the Myanmar military junta.

Founded in April 2009, the AA is the military wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA). It is currently led by Commander-in-Chief, Major General Twan Mrat Naing. It is the military wing of the Rakhine ethnic people in Rakhine state, where they are the majority.

The majority are Buddhists and a mix of Christian and animistic tribes (describes the belief that natural objects and phenomena, such as plants, animals, rocks, and the weather, have souls or spirits).

The Rakhine seek greater autonomy from Myanmar’s government and want to restore the sovereignty of the Arakan people. It was declared a terrorist organization in 2020 by Myanmar, and again by the military junta in 2024, headed by a 69-year-old General Min Aung Hlaing, who has ruled Myanmar with an iron hand as the Chairman of the State Administration Council since seizing power in the February 2021 coup d’état. He assumed his position as President in July 2024.

Millions of ethnic Rakhine are victims of forced displacement due to the conflict and onslaught of the government forces, and another 1.2 million ethnic Rohingya Muslims are languishing in crowded camps in Cox’s Bazar in southeast Bangladesh.

The displaced Rakhine community are starving because of want food and do not have cash to buy food.

There is an unconfirmed report that a consignment of food from the international food aid has been clandestinely sent to the beleaguered Rakhine state.

The internally displaced refugees are demanding more food aid for their survival. Food and water supplies have been blocked by the Myanmar junta to regions held by the rebels.

The AA and rebel China National Army have reached out to Bangladesh for food aid and to reopen trade between the two countries. Bangladesh has not officially come up with a decision for food aid and trade.

Earlier on the government had said that they cannot hold talks with AA, as they are not a legitimate authority representing Myanmar. But, last week the Adviser, Tauhid Hossain, for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs said Bangladesh may hold dialogue with AA for a number of pressing agendas, including border security, fresh influx of Rohingya refugees and other crucial issues.

The nascent Interim Government is in a dilemma as to whether Bangladesh should okay the “Silkhali Corridor” proposed by the Americans to provide food and logistics to keep the people of Rakhine state, or to continue with the challenge against the military junta in Naypyidaw, the new capital of Myanmar.

For military and strategic development, a team of military strategists has identified Silkhali as a supply hub for operations in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Well, no construction has yet begun, but top military visits (including Bangladesh Army COAS General Waker-uz-Zaman) confirm a positive nod for the site, which is in proximity to the conflict zone.

Silkhali is a revenue village, 30 kilometer north of Teknaf, near the Naf River, which separates Myanmar and Bangladesh. The corridor is presumed for the planned Rohingya repatriation once the operation begins.

The site is adjacent to the Bangladesh Army’s artillery field firing range (used for Turkish field guns and anti-tank guided missile – ATGM’s mortars). The coastal location is ideal for artillery testing and covert logistics movement, and has a thick forest cover often visited by elephant herds.

A massive logistics hub near Teknaf is under construction for supply movement. Meanwhile, the Cox’s Bazar airport is being upgraded for Turkish UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) operations for the Silkhali Corridor.

Recently, three US officials, Susan Stevenson (Charge d’Affaires based in  Naypyidaw, Nicole Chulick (Deputy Assistant Secretary, South Central Asia) and Andrew Herrup (Deputy Assistant Secretary, East Asia-Pacific) flew into Dhaka. It is not clear whether they have visited Silkhali.

Sources privy to the development said the US diplomats held secret parleys in Dhaka with representatives of the Arakan Army and the Chin National Front (CNF).

The AA and CNF refused to ally with the jihadist Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) as a condition for the secret meeting, the source said.

Their refusal led to the recent arrest of ARSA supremo Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi from the fringe of the capital Dhaka. He is accused of waging deadly 2017 attacks that led to a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar and forced 750,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

It could not be ascertained which agency ensured the safe passage for the Myanmar rebels to Dhaka and return to their secret headquarters in Rakhine and Chin states.

However, a senior diplomat with the US embassy in Dhaka denied such meetings with Myanmar rebels. He also said he does not know whether any dialogue with the rebels is planned to finalise logistics support for the supply of food aid.

Well, the plan for logistics and supply to Rakhine state will not include the Bangladesh Army’s role in the US-backed operation.

Bangladesh government of Prof Muhammad Yunus is strict in ensuring that the army’s 10th, 17th, and 24th Divisions will not get involved in any combat role except for facilitating logistics.

The United States Army Pacific (USARPAC) has been deployed for the proxy war and logistics at the Silkhali Corridor.

Highly placed sources said that the mission is to support a US-backed proxy war in Rakhine state against the Myanmar military junta. The mission will provide weapons, training to AA and CNF guerrillas, food and other supplies.

Myanmar is staunchly anti-US and anti-West. This diplomacy has pushed Naypyidaw to develop strategic and military alliances with China and Russia. On the other hand, America, the European Union, as well as the United Nations have imposed several economic and diplomatic sanctions against Myanmar.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, head of the Myanmar military junta, is facing an international arrest warrant issued in November 2024 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, for crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya Muslims.

At least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out in 2017, according to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Amnesty International says the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women and girls.

The primary objective of the US proxy war is to capture the most wanted war criminals, especially General Hlaing and six other Myanmar senior military officials responsible for the genocide against the Rohingya people, to stand trial in the ICC.

Washington is actively working with the National Unity Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (NUG), under the leadership of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, currently imprisoned in Yangon (formerly Rangoon) for sedition. NUG has been able to ally to share power and bury differences and frictions with most of the ethnic rebel groups that took up weapons for confederalism and have overrun two-thirds of the territories once held by the junta.

First published in the Strathieia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan, on 25 April 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Bangladesh’s sudden claim of pre-1971 assets jolts Pakistan

SALEEM SAMAD

On the eve of Pakistan Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch’s official visit to the Foreign Office Consultation (FOC) in the capital, Dhaka, the Interim Government of Prof Muhammad Yunus has prepared US $4.52 billion in financial claims from Pakistan authorities, comprising its fair share of undivided Pakistan’s pre-1971 assets, including aid money, provident funds, and savings instruments.

The FOC meeting of diplomatic engagement, held after 15 years of hiatus, between Dhaka and Islamabad, seeks to normalize bilateral relations.

The relations between the two South Asian countries have never been warm since the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. Pakistan President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto visited Bangladesh in 1974 with a promise to restore the tattered relations. In 1985, President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq visited Bangladesh, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (1989) and President Pervez Musharraf (2002).

On the other hand, Bangladesh’s first President, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, attended the Lahore OIC Summit in 1974. Later, President H.M. Ershad visited Islamabad (1986), and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Pakistan (1998). The relationship failed to attain heights. Instead, the ties got entangled in a stalemate, caused by mistrust, suspicion, and a lack of diplomatic understanding.

However, relations slightly normalized under the military regimes of General Ziaur Rahman (1976-1992) and General Hussain Muhammad Ershad (1993-1990) with Pakistan. Both the Generals graduated from Kakul Pakistan Military Academy and had several course mates who were at the helms of affairs in Rawalpindi military headquarters.

At the FOC meeting, Bangladesh formally demanded $4.52 billion from Pakistan as its share of pre-1971 assets, along with a formal apology for war crimes committed against Bangladeshis by the marauding Pakistan military, said Foreign Secretary Jashim Uddin.

Pakistan’s delegation, led by its Foreign Secretary, Amna Baloch, assured Bangladesh officials of “remaining engaged” on the issues of settling $4.52 billion owed to Bangladesh and making an apology for the Pakistani war crimes committed in 1971.

However, after the collapse of the autocrat Sheikh Hasina’s regime last August, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus have twice had parleys – on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September last year and at the D-8 summit in Cairo in December.

Since then, Bangladesh and Pakistan have eased the visa regime for both nationals of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Both countries are showing keen interest in boosting trade, said an official who is privy to the FOC, adding that Pakistan also wants to enhance cultural exchanges and establish direct air connectivity.

Bangladesh High Commissioner to Pakistan Iqbal Hussain Khan told journalists in Dhaka that a Pakistani airline – Fly Jinnah has secured approval for direct flights between Dhaka and Karachi, while Air Sial, another private one, has applied for permission to operate flights. No official and private Bangladesh airlines expressed their desire to fly Dhaka-Karachi flights.

Pakistan exported products like cotton, sugar, rice, and wheat in FY 2023–24. Bangladesh exported $61.98 million to Pakistan and imported goods worth $627.8 million.

As Pakistan serves as a gateway for goods to Afghanistan, Dhaka can explore the potentiality of trading premium quality goods to and from the landlocked country through Pakistan.

The last FOC in 2015 covered sensitive issues, which remain unresolved. However, officials stress these should not hinder current engagement.

Meanwhile, Indian Modi Media writes that the Bangladesh-Pakistan FOC meeting is a big threat for India as Pakistan and Bangladesh decide to come closer.

Nivedita Dash writes on India.com that after the fall of Sheikh Hasina, relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan are continuously deepening. Yunus government supported by pro-Pakistan fundamentalists has completely opened the doors of Dhaka to Islamabad.

There is a threat to regional stability and security issues will be jeopardized, with the two South Asian countries coming close and closer.

Her article dipped in a sauce of lies and more lies, further claims that “During the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh, Dhaka had completely cut off ties with Pakistan, but the interim government led by Mohammad Yunus has rolled out the red carpet for Pakistan. Since then, Islamabad has completely intensified its activities in Dhaka.”

Like India, Hasina has never cut ties with Pakistan nor intended to sever relations. Well, both Dhaka and Islamabad lowered their diplomatic status and there were no High Commissioner in each other’s capitals for quite some time.

Two diplomats, one each from Dhaka and Islamabad were declared persona non grata.

On the diplomatic front, Hasina had announced a moratorium on visas for Pakistan nationals, except for official visits to Bangladesh. Pakistan also reciprocated. This impacted on direct flights from Karachi-Dhaka route and PIA flights were stalled until now for lack of passengers.

The row over lowering diplomatic ties sparked after Pakistan’s parliament adopted a resolution condemning Bangladesh for the trials of those Islamist leaders, who were henchmen of Pakistan occupation forces and had raised armed militia and committed crimes against humanity in Bangladesh.

The parliament resolution read that those war criminals hanged in Bangladesh had sacrificed their lives for the sake of the unity of Pakistan and were regarded as martyrs.

Nivedita Dash is also worried that Pakistan’s army and its spy agency ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence) have become active in Bangladesh. Along with this, Pakistan is now also trying to increase its trade presence with Bangladesh.

The claim includes $200m foreign aid sent to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) after the 1970 Bhola Cyclone, which was deliberately diverted to Lahore during independence war in 1971.

The Bhola Cyclone was a catastrophic tropical cyclone that struck a coastal region in November 1970. It is considered the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded, with an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 deaths.

The foreign aid deposited with the Dhaka branch of the State Bank of Pakistan was siphoned in 1971 to its bank’s Lahore branch, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials stated.

Bangladesh officials argued at the FOC that comprising its fair share of undivided Pakistan’s pre-1971 assets, including aid money, provident funds, and savings instruments.

The financial claims do not include reparation for an untold humanitarian crisis caused by war crimes, when ten million war refugees who took shelter in neighboring India and rape as a weapon of war was employed during the brutal birth of Bangladesh in 1971.

Some categories of those affected in the war are still being compensated through modest monthly doles.

Similarly, hundreds of Bangla-speaking government employees who had been stationed in West Pakistan were later repatriated home in 1973-74. On their return, they discovered that their provident fund balances and savings instruments accrued were never refunded by Pakistan. These financial losses are part of the broader US $4.52 billion claim.

The Foreign Ministry officials said Bangladesh has consistently sought its rightful share for the return of the US $200 million in cyclone aid that was illegally misappropriated at the peak of the liberation war in 1971.

According to foreign ministry records, based on population alone, Bangladesh was entitled to 56 per cent of those assets. If contributions to foreign exchange earnings are considered, the share stands at 54 per cent, and by any parity principle, Bangladesh should be entitled to at least 50 per cent.

A post-war assessment prepared by the Bangladesh Planning Commission on 16 December 1971 estimated that West Pakistan had withheld Bangladesh Taka (BDT) 9 million (Pakistan Rupees 20.76 million) in provident fund deposits belonging to East Pakistani civil servants.

Similarly, BDT 15.7 million (Rupees 36.26 million) held in the Rupali Bank’s (formerly Muslim Commercial Bank) Karachi branch during the war was never returned. Pakistan later converted this amount into shares and informed Muslim Commercial Bank – unfortunately, the bank never responded and money was never transferred.

Adding to the grievance, the Bangladesh government honored the obligations of various pre-independence instruments sold by the Pakistani government – including defense savings certificates and income tax bonds – effectively paying debts that it believes Pakistan should have settled.

A report titled “Statement of Bangladesh Bank Claims Receivable from State Bank of Pakistan and Government of Pakistan” lays out a detailed breakdown.

As of 16 December 1971, the total value of the currency in circulation was Rupees 8.71 million, at least half of which Bangladesh owes. Pakistan’s bank sectors alone owe Bangladesh, Rupees 56 million.

The Bangladesh government also accepted liability of BDT 213.8 million (Rupees 493.50 million) of some of Pakistan’s central government and provincial government debt securities, claims which Dhaka has lodged.

These include BDT 140.7 million (Rupee 324.77 million) in central government loans, BDT 27.7 million (Rupee 63.94 million) in East Pakistan government loans, BDT 11.5 million (Rupee 26.55 million) in West Pakistan government loans, BDT 24.6 million (Rupee 56.79 million) in savings certificates issued against international trading unit investments, and BDT 0.65 million (Rupee 1,500 million) in Savings Certificates linked to Pakistani Prize Bonds.

It is understood that Islamabad will review the claim of Bangladesh US$4.52 and hold further parleys to resolve the debt issue. Bangladesh had waited for 54 years to speak up, it will take another several years for Pakistan to make up its mind and relay its decision on the financial claims.

Meanwhile, according to data from the State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan’s reserves stood at $15.75 billion, reports BBC news portal.

That is, Pakistan will have to spend more than a quarter of its reserves to meet Bangladesh’s demands, BBC concluded.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 18 April 2025 

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

https://stratheia.com/bangladeshs-sudden-claim-of-pre-1971-assets-jolts-pakistan/

Who’s Afraid of Feminist Writer Taslima Nasrin?

SALEEM SAMAD

The traditional month-long book fair ended last February. The book fair commemorates the fallen heroes who sacrificed their lives on 21 February 1952 to establish Bangla (or Bengali) as the mother language.

Presently, the day is observed worldwide as International Mothers Language Day, declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

However, the threats of Islamic extremists and radicalised Muslims have not been contained by law enforcement agencies. Each year, a book stall or free-thinker writers, poets and bloggers were attacked.

At least two writers, Humayun Azad, a teacher of Dhaka University and an exiled free-thinker and popular science writer, Avijit Roy were hacked to death jihadist. Attackers killed a US-Bangladeshi blogger whose writings on religion angered Islamist hardliners. Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism and religious freedom, was attacked as he walked out of the book fair with his wife. She was also grievously hurt in the attack.

The Islamists had accused them of blasphemy, meaning hurting the Muslims for critiquing the Quran, the prophet Muhammad, revered by Muslims and the existence of Allah.

Anyway, at Dhaka the book fair is held in the Dhaka University campus, the incident took place in the evening at the stall of the publisher Sabyasachi Prokashoni.

The incident unfolded on the 10th day of the fair, the angry crowd of “Towhidi Janata” from the Madrassa (Islamic schools) stormed the Sabyasachi Prokashoni and demanded that Taslima’s books should be removed. Police shut down a stall at the ‘Amar Ekushey Boi Mela’ (book fair) following an altercation over books by a feminist writer. Later, police went to the spot and covered the stall with a tarpaulin and only one was arrested. After a temporary shutdown, it has been reopened.

The Sabyasachi stall has been at the centre of discussion for some time, when multiple posts on social media called for the demolition of a book stall at the book fair, alleging that the publisher was promoting atheism. Prof Mohammad Azam, director general of Bangla Academy, said the police had closed down the bookstall to maintain law and order.

The Chief Adviser of the Interim Government, Prof Muhammad Yunus, has condemned the recent mob attack on the bookstall, calling it an affront to the rights of Bangladeshi citizens and the country’s laws.

In a statement, he denounced the violence, emphasising that it goes against the open-minded spirit of the book fair, which honours the language martyrs of 21 February 1952.

Taslima Nasrin condemned the government’s alleged support for extremists and the attack on her publisher. However, the book is available for sale online.

The government ordered the police and the Bangla Academy to investigate the incident and bring the culprits to book.  S8xty-three years-old Taslima is a prolific writer, physician, feminist, secular humanist and activist on religious freedom. The writer is known for her writings on the oppression of women and criticism of women’s rights in Islamic laws. Two of her books Lajja (Shame) and Amar Meyebela (My Girlhood), the first volume of her autobiography, were banned in Bangladesh.

Nasrin was forced out of her country because of her controversial writings, which many Muslims felt discredited Islam. Her plight was often compared to that of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses (1988). Taslima was physically attacked while giving autographs to hundreds of fans by the Muslim extremists at the book fair in 1992. The protesters vandalised the bookstall that objected to her writings. She was asked by the book fair committee not to visit the fair anymore. The writer was again attacked in August 2007 in Hyderabad while attending an event on the Telugu translation of one of her novels, Shodh. She was physically assaulted on the podium led by legislators from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, an Indian Islamist political party.

Earlier, she was invited to inaugurate her book in Mumbai, India. However, the Islamic extremists launched a campaign against her and declared that they would burn her alive if she arrived in Mumbai. She cancelled her trip to Mumbai. Contrary to Muslim practice, she wore her hair short and smoked cigarettes, and she eschewed traditional Muslim dress. Her writing and behaviour enraged and offended conservative Sunni Muslims. The writer was forced to go into exile after Mullahs and extremist Muslims issued a Fatwa (religious decree) in 1993 declaring prize money for her head and demanding the authorities arrest her for blasphemy and insults to Islam. She immediately went into hiding. After a High Court order to travel abroad, she fled the country and lived briefly in Sweden, Germany, France and the United States.

In a similar incident, popular young poet Daud Haider in 1973, two years after the brutal birth of Bangladesh, wrote a poem which angered the Islamists. Thousands of Mullahs poured into the street and demanded death for the apostate.

The countrywide street protests by the Islamists accused him of blasphemy for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who advocated for zero tolerance of Islamic extremism, had arrested the poet to keep the Mullahs in good humour. He was tortured in custody and then forced into exile. The Islamists who attacked him and even killed one of his cousins were never punished.

Daud was sheltered in India for some time, like the much more famous Taslima Nasreen, quietly protected by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government. And later he was given asylum in Germany. Like Taslima, Daud never dared to return to Bangladesh.

Taslima came to the international limelight after her book Lajja (Shame) was published in different languages and Time, Vogue and several other magazines put her on their cover.

Her documentary novel Lajja, which is a protest against the torture of the Hindu community of Bangladesh, was published. She wrote withering diatribes against the oppression of women and the Islamic code. She described the Muslims of East Bengal are radicalised, misogynist and male-chauvinist.

Taslima has won many awards, including Ananda Puroshkar, an Indian literary award; the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought from the European Parliament; the Kurt Tuckholsky award from Swedish PEN; a human rights prize from the French government; and a humanist award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union. This interview took place in France in early 2000.

She moved to Kolkata, India, to live near her home – Bangladesh. Later, she was shocked when the West Bengal authorities expelled her. Authorities in Bangladesh until now have refused to reissue her passport despite her applying for her passport at the Bangladesh missions abroad.

First published in International Affairs Review, New Delhi, India on 12 April 2025

The author is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh.  He is also a media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders and recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

SALEEM SAMAD

Soon after Professor Muhammad Yunus frankly announced that Bangladesh is the guardian of the ocean—the Bay of Bengal—the bigwigs, military hawks, politicians, and ‘Godi Media’ in India lashed out at Bangladesh for such a statement, which has been deemed a security threat to the most prominent neighbor of South Asian nations.

Conspiracy theories across the border may sound interesting, but equally disgusting. It is frustrating when scores of Indian so-called defense experts and former military hawks speak and write with confidence that China will establish an airbase (not a military base) in northern Bangladesh to battle the Indians to cut off the so-called ‘Chicken Neck’ or Siliguri Corridor, which physically connects India with North East states.

The consequential theory simmering in the heads of Indian defense analysts claims that the Chinese will severe the North East (which is also known as the Seven Sisters) from the Chicken Neck. Incidentally, millions of Chinese soldiers (People’s Liberation Army) will invade from the northeastern Chinese borders.

Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dilip Ghosh in a ‘friendly message’ in December 2024, commented that Bangladesh’s armed forces are no match for India and that Bangladesh’s political leaders should “think carefully” about the ongoing turmoil.

Promptly Eresh Omar Jamal in an Op Ed in The Daily Star, an independent newspaper, wrote: It is important to mention that BJP leaders have repeatedly accused Bangladeshis of trying to take over the “rightful land” of Indians, referring to them as “Jihadis,” “infiltrators,” and “termites,” who should be identified and drowned in the Bay of Bengal.

The hawkish Generals and Indian defense policymakers have already pressed the panic button and are preparing exhaustive defensive strategies to save North East India from being bifurcated.

A defense journal, Defense Security Asia in a recent article says that India has deployed its cutting-edge Russian-built S-400 Trium long-range air defense system to the Siliguri Corridor (20–22 kilometer wide land bridge in West Bengal often dubbed the “Chicken’s Neck” due to its precarious geography).

“This critical strip of land forms the only terrestrial conduit between mainland India and its resource-rich but geographically isolated northeastern states, making it one of the country’s most vital and vulnerable military arteries.

“The positioning of the S-400 system — renowned for its ability to simultaneously engage multiple aerial targets at ranges exceeding 400 kilometers is viewed as a calibrated response to intensifying aerial activity by China and Bangladesh near India’s eastern frontier.”

The article does not hesitate to say that New Delhi’s “security establishment has grown increasingly alarmed by the frequency and complexity of Chinese and Bangladeshi air maneuvers” along their respective borders with the Siliguri Corridor, interpreting them as probing gestures with strategic undertones.

The write-up also does not provide evidence from aerial and surveillance photos to claim the military maneuver of the Chinese and Bangladesh. There is no airbase in northern Bangladesh.

The Indian security experts believe that Bangladesh has given the airfields to the Chinese to convert them into a military base. There are two tiny abandoned airstrips at Thakurgaon and Lalmonirhat built by the British colonialists during the Second World War to defend against Japanese invasion.

British Raj built a dozen airfields for light fighter aircraft in East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Also another two dozen airfields were built in neighboring Indian states of West Bengal and North East India.

The conspiracy theories cropped up following the collapse of the staunch pro-India Sheikh Hasina government. The potential move to give the airfields to China has stirred alarm in the Indian capital, given the site’s proximity to the Siliguri Corridor.

The timing of India’s force posture recalibration coincides with a discernible diplomatic pivot by Bangladesh’s interim administration under Mohammad Yunus, whose government has moved closer to Beijing in both rhetoric and action, writes the Defense Security Asia. They fear in a bid to recalibrate its foreign policy footing, Bangladesh under Yunus has actively pursued economic and infrastructure partnerships with Beijing, raising red flags in India’s intelligence and security community.

The trust and confidence between the two neighboring countries have further slid, after Delhi came to know that the Interim Government has courted investment and defense cooperation with China and Pakistan — two nations New Delhi regards as strategic antagonists.

During the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars in the eastern war theater, the Pakistan Army with air support never came to their heads to occupy the Siliguri Corridor in a bid to cut off North East from mainland India.

Military strategist believes such a foolish attempt to occupy the ‘chicken neck’ would have caused huge casualties of soldiers and military hardware, which would not have been practical.

The scenario of a bifurcated India has led to a doctrinal shift in India’s Eastern Command, which now prioritizes rapid response, multi-domain deterrence, and sustained forward deployment in and around the corridor.

India has consistently rejected China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), warning that it enables the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to embed dual-use infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific, which will undermine sovereignty and military balance in the region.

In response to these converging threats, India has activated its S-400 batteries in the Siliguri region and has reinforced its tactical aviation presence by deploying a squadron of French-built Rafale multirole fighters to nearby Hashimara Airbase.

Bangladesh has a couple of squadron ageing Russian MiG-29 and Chinese Chengdu F-7 fighter planes. Some of the planes are deployed in southeast Bangladesh, providing layered air dominance and enhancing its ability to respond swiftly to any hostile incursion from Myanmar.

Indian media published the procurement of a Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone, operated by Bangladesh forces, which has allegedly flown perilously close to the India-Bangladesh border. However, there was no official warning from Delhi to Dhaka for violation of airspace along the international border.

India has jittered after it learnt that Bangladesh is acquiring 32 JF-17 Thunder fighter jets, a fourth-generation multirole platform jointly developed by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and China’s Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group (CAIG) to replace its ageing combat aircraft.

The already strained bilateral relationship between India and Bangladesh has added fresh suspicion and distrust when a high-level Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials led by Major General Shahid Amir Asfar visited Dhaka a few months ago.

Promptly, India’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a carefully worded statement, noting that the government is “closely monitoring all developments in the region” and would respond appropriately to any threats to national security. “We are vigilant about all regional movements and actions that may affect national security. The Indian government will act decisively as needed,” said ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

India’s recalibration of its defense posture in the Siliguri Corridor reflects not only its growing apprehensions over regional power shifts but also its determination to harden its eastern front against a potential two-front scenario involving China and Pakistan – both now drawing closer to Dhaka, concluded Defense Security Asia. Another article in the Economic Times was published with a self-explanatory headline: India to build underground nuclear submarine fortress to counter China as Bangladesh offers air base to Beijing near Chicken Neck.

India is quietly nearing the commissioning of a strategically significant naval base near the village of Rambilli, tucked into the Andhra Pradesh coastline, about 50 km south of the Eastern Naval Command headquarters in Visakhapatnam.

Built as part of the classified Project Varsha, the Rambilli facility means these vessels can slip into the Bay of Bengal undetected by enemy satellites — especially those operated by China — and head towards the strategic Malacca Strait and beyond for deterrent patrols.

India’s moves come at a time of heightened concern about Chinese military presence in the Bay of Bengal. Though the Chinese jets have not been stationed in India’s eastern neighborhood, even the possibility raises eyebrows.

India’s security concerns in this region are already amplified by China’s expanding presence in the Indian Ocean and infrastructure projects across South Asia.

Prestigious, The Economic Times, concludes that while submarines patrol the deep and airfields rise near borders, one thing is clear – India is preparing, quietly but firmly, for the long game.

Amid the host of defense preparations to engage China in the Bay of Bengal a make-believe airbase in Lalmonirhat, last week India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar while emphasizing that New Delhi is troubled over the recent turn of events in Bangladesh and the support that the ruling dispensation is giving to radical elements in the neighbor said: “No other country wishes well for Bangladesh more than India.” The welcome note did not bring a smile to Dhaka.

First published in Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 12 April 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Chai-walla tête-à-tête with the inventor of social business

SALEEM SAMAD

News media in Bangladesh and India were agog due to the news that Prof Muhammad Yunus, Chief Advisor of the Interim Government, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met officially for the first time in a decade on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, on 4 April.

The meeting buried all speculations on the question of ‘to be or not to be’ a tête-à-tête meeting between two neighboring countries, Bangladesh and India. They sat down for a meeting eight months after the change of guards in Bangladesh, after the bloody street protest, which ousted autocrat Sheikh Hasina from power.

The leaders of these two major South Asian countries greeted each other with mutual respect and a shared openness for dialogue. Their 40-minute exchange was candid, productive, and constructive, the Indian official spokesperson said.

Narendra Modi in a Tweet (now X) says: [I met] “Mr. Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh. India remains committed to a constructive and people-centric relationship with Bangladesh. “I reiterated India’s support for peace, stability, inclusivity and democracy in Bangladesh. Discussed measures to prevent illegal border crossings and expressed our serious concern for the safety and well-being of Hindus and other minorities.”

The meeting was supposedly engineered by Pranay Kumar Verma, the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, who had made it possible for Yunus and Modi to meet face-to-face. Professor Yunus enquired about the status of Bangladesh’s formal request for the extradition of Sheikh Hasina, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, which remains pending with the Indian government. The journalists were told that Bangladesh reiterated Hasina’s possible extradition plan, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said. “There were talks on Sheikh Hasina’s extradition. Can’t say more on that,” he furthermore added.

Modi was told that Hasina had been making inflammatory remarks and accusations against the interim government of Bangladesh to various media outlets and attempting to destabilize the situation in Bangladesh, which seemed to be an abuse of the hospitality India has extended to her. “We request that the Government of India take appropriate measures to restrain her from continuing to make such incendiary statements while she remains in your country,” his press secretary, Shafiqul Alam stated.

Indian Prime Minister promptly blamed social media for the tensions around Sheikh Hasina’s remarks. However, Modi, in response to Hasina’s issue, stated that “rhetoric that vitiates the environment” is best avoided. One of the things he said in the meeting was that while India had good relations with Sheikh Hasina, “We saw her disrespectful behavior towards you. But we continued to respect and honor you.”

He clarified that India’s attachment is with a country, not with any individuals or political organization. “Our relationship is people-to-people,” Modi told Yunus. What he meant was that India did not pledge loyalty to Awami League only. Although in reality, Delhi has put all its eggs in one basket during 15-years of Hasina’s misrule.

India deliberately avoided mentioning the July-August uprising – Monsoon Revolution when 1,400 students and protesters (figure quoted from OHCHR Fact-Finding Report, February 2025) were killed by law enforcement forces and armed Awami League vigilantes. The UN report notes that the Prime Minister herself had ordered security forces to kill protesters  and specifically instructed them to “arrest the ringleaders, kill them, and hide their bodies.”

Hasina had pathological hatred against the opposition, critics, dissidents, independent journalists, human rights activists and social media users. The journalists, critics, human rights activists and social media influencers were booked under non-bailable charges under repressive cybercrime laws.

India or the Indian media hardly reacted to Hasina’s repressive regime. She ruled the country with an iron hand. This was the reason for rising enforced disappearances, the encampment in secret prisons managed by dreaded security agencies and extra-judicial deaths with impunity.

Public opinion in Bangladesh has turned against India over its decision to provide sanctuary to fugitive Hasina, while the Dhaka courts are waiting to put her on the dock for alleged crimes against humanity during the July-August street protests.

Regarding the official statement of Vikram Misri, it is argued that despite India having a functional democracy for seven decades, Delhi never gave sermons to Hasina to hold an inclusive election in 2014, 2018 and 2024. Instead, the Indian Prime Minister promptly congratulated Hasina for being re-elected to power.

All three elections were flawed. The regime kept tens of thousands languishing in prison until the elections were over, according to election observers and human rights groups. The bilateral relations plunged through the cracks of the fault line after India decided to give political shelter to ousted Sheikh Hasina in August last year.

“PM Modi reiterated India’s support for democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh. He underlined India’s desire to forge a positive and constructive relationship with Bangladesh. The PM also urged that any rhetoric that vitiates the environment is best avoided,” Misri said.

Modi underlined India’s concerns over the safety and security of minorities, including Hindus in Bangladesh, and expressed his expectation that the Bangladesh government would ensure their security, including by thoroughly investigating the cases of atrocities committed against them. Responding to Modi’s concern over the condition of minorities in Bangladesh, the Chief Adviser said the reports of attacks on the minorities were hugely inflated and “the bulk of them were fake news”.

Yunus said he has instituted an effective system for monitoring every incident of religious and gender violence in the country, and his government was taking serious actions to stop any occurrence of such incidents. Yunus also raised the issue of border killings and stressed the need of working together to reduce the number of fatalities. “On the border, strict enforcement of the law and prevention of illegal border crossings, especially at night, is necessary for maintaining border security and stability. The bilateral mechanism could meet as appropriate to review and take forward our ties,” reads the Indian press statement. Modi furthermore explained that the Indian border troops opened fire only in self-defense and the fatalities occurred in Indian territories.

The leaders agreed that strict enforcement of the law and prevention of illegal crossings would help to build trust and confidence and to strengthen the relationship between India and Bangladesh. India’s inconsistent stance on border killings has contributed to a rise in anti-India sentiments in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's Chief Adviser’s Office gave a strong diplomatic message to India and the Indians when a photograph was presented to Modi. The photo is about Narendra Modi presenting a gold medal to Nobel laureate Professor Yunus at the 102nd Indian Science Congress that took place in Mumbai on 3 January 2015. The Indians cannot deny that Modi knew the inventor of social business and micro-credit, which salvaged millions of disadvantaged women from poverty.

Addressing the challenges facing the relationship between the two countries, Professor Yunus said, “Excellency, we seek to work together with you to set the relationship on the right track for the benefit of both our peoples.” “Bangladesh deeply values its relationship with India,” said Professor Yunus. “The deep-rooted friendship between our two countries is founded on intertwined histories, geographical proximity, and cultural affinity. We remain thankful for the unwavering support of the government and people of India during our most challenging time in 1971 [the brutal birth of Bangladesh].”

Al Jazeera writes: “Sheikh Hasina’s overthrow sent Bangladesh’s relationship with neighboring India into a tailspin, culminating in Yunus choosing to make his first state visit last month to China – India’s biggest rival. “Bangladesh has also moved closer to India’s arch-enemy Pakistan amid the diplomatic chill,” Al Jazeera remarked.

In an editorial, the largest circulated independent newspaper, the Prothom Alo writes: “Though delayed, we welcome the high-level meeting between Bangladesh and India. At the same time, we believe that one or two meetings alone are not sufficient to resolve the ongoing tensions in the bilateral relations of the two countries. Dialogue must be sustained at all levels. Bangladesh had long emphasized the need for such a meeting between the two heads of government.

“Since the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August last year and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina seeking refuge in India, there have been certain strains in Bangladesh-India relations. Although the political transition in Bangladesh is entirely an internal matter, policymakers in Delhi have found it difficult to accept this reality.”

Prothom Alo urged for healthy bilateral relations, communication and movement between the peoples of both nations as essential.

Writer and researcher Mohiuddin Ahmad lamented that India has imposed a blanket moratorium on the issuance of visas to Bangladeshi nationals since August last year. The non-issuance of visas halted three direct train and bus services. The flights between the two countries have also significantly reduced. Bangladesh did not reciprocate to the Indian visa regime policy and instead asked all missions to issue visas to Indian nationals, especially for journalists on the fast track.

Another bone of contention was water sharing. Bangladesh and India not only share a land border of nearly four thousand kilometers but also 54 common rivers. While the issue of the land boundary was resolved during the tenure of the Modi government, the matter of water sharing from the common rivers remains unsettled. The Ganges water-sharing treaty is set to expire in 2026.

Harsh Pant, foreign policy head at the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank, expressed hope that the meeting between Modi and Yunus would “start the process of rebuilding some engagement” between the two historically close nations. Several think tanks on both sides of the border stated after the meeting took place that it was clear that India wants to chart a new course in its relationships with Bangladesh.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 7 April 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Bangladesh: The Guardian of The Bay of Bengal!

Saleem Samad

The hostile Indian “Godi Media” is once again rolling up their sleeves after Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus said that, “We Are The Only Guardian Of Ocean…”

Hours before Prof Yunus arrived in Dhaka (before taking oath of public office as Chief Adviser of an Interim Government), he spoke to India’s popular 24/7 news channel NDTV. He said that “if Bangladesh becomes unstable, it will affect [neighboring] West Bengal, Myanmar, and the entire North East India.”

Such a statement by Yunus did raise eyebrows of Delhi-wallas but they did not officially react. Once again, when he mentioned that the North East India (collectively known as the “Seven Sisters”) is landlocked. He suggested that if the Indian states in the North East are given access to the ocean, it will make its economy vibrant and create backward linkage industries which will create employment opportunities for people on both sides of the border.

However, Assam’s (a member of Seven Sisters) Chief Minister, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, in a reaction says Yunus’s ploy in stating North East is “landlocked” and proposal to open the region to the “oceans” is a sinister threat and provocative to severe North East from mainland India.

In fact, such a proposal was first given by the Japanese in 2022 that they will help India’s North East to set up industries and infrastructure to reach Bay of Bengal – the maritime routes to export destinations. For Japan, India’s North East has been in focus for some time. Japan has shown an urgency to build an integrated and scaled-up supply chain in the region as it plans to boost its presence and increase investments.

South Asian countries are among the least connected and integrated in the world today, writes Mahua Venkatesh in an influential India Narrative news portal. Bangladesh will indeed be a “game-changer” for the region as it would open up connectivity with India’s North East, especially Tripura and Assam, along with landlocked Nepal and Bhutan, when the US 1.5 billion seaport becomes functional.

During a trip to India, Japan’s former Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, (2021 to 2024) in March 2023 highlighted the importance of strengthening connectivity in the North East region, rich in resources but relatively untapped, for developing robust global supply chains.

When Kishida proposed developing an industrial hub in Bangladesh with “supply chains” to the landlocked North Eastern states of India, and to Nepal and Bhutan beyond by developing a port and transport in the region, “to foster the growth of the entire region,” hardly anybody understood the depth of his vision, writes Venkatesh. The Indian government was upbeat about the Japanese proposal. Soon after a Japanese delegation held parleys with stakeholders on the yawning economic opportunities for the North East region.

Welcoming Japan’s initiative, the Japanese, Indian and Bangladeshi officials also discussed the plans with G. Kishan Reddy, India’s Federal Minister for the North East. At that time the Godi media, or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), advocating Hindutva (true ‘Indian’ partakes of this ‘Hindu-ness’) did not make any hue and cry nor did it raise “territorial claim” of North East.

Interestingly, history says the British Raj understood their political grievances and gave those princely states reasonable political autonomy which kept them in good humor. However, Delhi systematically ignored the Seven Sisters in scaling up infrastructure development for economic, industrial growth and emancipation of the people. The economic hardship, poverty and controversial state policy agenda went against the ethnic communities in North East states.

Delhi’s bureaucrats responsible for negotiating the political agenda of the ethnic leaders were mishandled. Failing in negotiations with the ethnic leaders, the region plunged into a deadly political crisis and thousands of military and para-military forces were deployed. The soldiers did not speak their language and did not understand their culture and they were blamed for committing human rights abuses during anti-insurgency operations against armed separatists, who were divided into several ethnic groups and sub-groups.

Initially, India refused to hold peace talks with the ethnic leaders blaming the armed insurrections that were aided and abetted by China and Pakistan in the 70s.

Pakistan came into the scenario when Bangladesh was an eastern province of Pakistan. The rogue military dictator General Ayub Khan (later President) provided political and material support to the separatist ethnic groups. Ayub Khan was once GOC and stationed in Dhaka. He knew the region. It’s a long story!

Most of the Indian officials and central politicians have little knowledge about states in north east and journalists travelling to Delhi for meetings or seminars used to hear strange stories about the region. Once, a journalist Anirban Rai, who worked for the Hindustan Times, went to the head office of an airlines at the ticket reservation counter to reconfirm his return flight to Guwahati, state capital of Assam. He was asked to produce his passport, which made him angry!

A fresh conspiracy theory has been cooked up that giving access to the ocean by Bangladesh challenges India’s regional security.

The feel-good project to serve as a key port for the landlocked North East Indian states is expected to be commercially operational in 2030. The economic development will immensely contribute to the rich cultural heritage of the millions of vibrant communities living in the region, bordering China on the side and restive Myanmar in the South. Meanwhile, projects for road and railway connectivity projects to the desired port from the Seven Sisters are almost completed by the Indian and Bangladesh governments.

Though Delhi has not issued any official statement, former senior officials like Ambassador Veena Sikri said Yunus is not politically empowered to negotiate with China to expand the Bay of Bengal to India’s arch-enemy and open the gateway to the ocean for North East.

One must admit that China, through its infrastructure investments, has made major inroads into Bangladesh after 2009, when Sheikh Hasina was re-elected backed by India (according to Indian President Pranab Mukherjee’s autobiography The Coalition Years), since Modi’s government was hesitant to continue strengthening bilateral ties with Dhaka.

What the Godi media do not discuss is that Bangladesh is the guardian of the Bay of Bengal, the world’s largest bay, which forms the southern border of Bangladesh, covering an area of approximately 2.17 million square kilometers and is a crucial part of the Indian Ocean.

Bangladesh has sovereign rights for the exploration, exploitation, conservation, and management of natural resources, including both living and non-living resources.

Bangladesh has delimited its maritime boundaries with India and Myanmar through arbitration, ensuring a fair and equitable division of maritime zones in the Bay of Bengal. The 12-nautical mile territorial sea, a 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and a continental shelf extending up to 350 nautical miles, according to international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Bangladesh has maritime rights in the bay.

The Indian TV news blames Yunus for recalibrating its compass towards Beijing and has crossed the red line for anti-India rants while visiting China, and they argue that his government is not legitimate. Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington said Bangladesh has become a battleground for great power competition.

India’s ruling BJP and the South Block in New Delhi must stop looking at Bangladesh through the lens of Sheikh Hasina, who has fled Dhaka and taken shelter somewhere in New Delhi.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 2 May 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

India shies over Yunus-Modi talks

SALEEM SAMAD

India has not declined a meeting with Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, Chief adviser of Bangladesh Interim Government and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

South Block in New Delhi did not respond to a request for Yunus-Modi state-level bilateral meeting in New Delhi. Through diplomatic channels Yunus administration requested for a bilateral visit in December 2024.

Nor did Delhi respond to a meeting on the sidelines of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) on 3-4 April in Bangkok, Thailand.

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar remained non-committal, saying “Bangladesh’s request for a meeting between its interim government’s Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the upcoming BIMSTEC Summit is under consideration.”

BIMSTEC is a regional organization of seven countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand) focused on promoting economic and technical cooperation in the Bay of Bengal region, with its secretariat located in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The platform dropped Pakistan and Maldives giving a flimsy excuse that the countries do not share the Bay of Bengal. Whereas, Nepal and Bhutan do not have shores with the Bay of Bengal but are said to be beneficiaries of the sea.

Meanwhile, the independent Indian newspaper The Hindu reported on 25 March that Yunus wanted to visit India before China, but did not receive a positive response, quoting Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam to Prof Yunus’s administration.

Yunus seeks bilateral ties with India before visiting China, pitching Bangladesh as a business-friendly destination, writes Kallol Bhattacherjee in the Hindu.

Bangladesh is still waiting for a response from India for a meeting between Yunus and Modi on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit.

Chief Adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh desired to travel to India before visiting China but Dhaka’s request for the visit did not elicit a “positive” Indian response, said Alam.

Yunus is the second leader from South Asia to be hosted in China in four months. Nepal’s Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli travelled to China in December 2024 on an official visit.

Like the formal request to extradite ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in December last year, the meeting between the two heads of government, Delhi remains absolutely silent. Indian government remains conspicuously tight lipped over the possible bilateral meeting.

Sources in the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs who is privy to the exchange of diplomatic messages said there could be multiple reasons, why India continues to be silent over the requests from Bangladesh.

First, India-Bangladesh ties should not be ‘regime-specific’, says Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser Mohmmad Touhid Hossain. Second, India is officially not prepared to make any commitment to the extradition of Hasina.

Third, how will Modi respond to Yunus when he asks him when India will extradite her to stand trial for crimes against humanity responsible for the deaths of over 1400 students and protesters?

The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, in their 114-page investigation report, says “The brutal response was a calculated and well-coordinated strategy by the former Government [of Awami League] to hold onto power in the face of mass opposition,” UN Human Rights (OHCHR), Chief Volker Türk, said.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture, were carried out with the knowledge, coordination and direction of the political leadership and senior security officials as part of a strategy to suppress the protests.”

The UN fact-finding mission report directly blames Hasina for ordering law enforcement agencies to shoot at protesters with live bullets to neutralize the anti-government street uprising.

Indian media has raised storms on news broadcasts and talk shows that India cannot invite a “stooge” of the United States and China, an unelected leader, etcetera, etcetera. Most importantly, he does not represent the people of Bangladesh which was the first reason for India not responding to Bangladesh’s request for an official meeting.

Bilateral political history of Bangladesh says it differently. At least three military dictators made official visits to Delhi. Like General Ziaur Rahman (1977-1981), General Hussain Muhammad Ershad (1982-1990) and Lt. Gen Moeen U Ahmed (2006-2008), despite not having the people’s mandate.

Indian ruling and opposition parties never objected to the bilateral meetings with three military dictators. The Indian media was not vociferous against their official visits.

The Indian media, also joined by the Indian ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), failed to reconcile with the forcible departure of their all-weather friend Sheikh Hasina, who has taken refuge on the outskirts of Delhi. Jaishankar last week told the Consultative Committee on External Affairs in Delhi that India was aware of the mounting discontent against Hasina leading up to the ouster of her government on 5 August 2024, but could not intervene as it lacked the necessary leverage over the former prime minister.

Admitting tensions between Delhi and Dhaka, especially after India granted refuge to Hasina, the Interim Government in Bangladesh has begun engaging with India, Jaishankar told the Indian lawmakers.

Commenting on the influence of “external actors” in Bangladesh, Jaishankar said he viewed China as a regional “competitor” rather than an “adversary”, writes The Hindu.

Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar also told the meeting that SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) was inactive because of Pakistan’s approach and thus India is trying to strengthen BIMSTEC.

In the worst-case scenario, Narendra Modi is expected to drop attending BIMSTEC at the last moment and instead send an emissary on his behalf to attend the summit. Thus, the Modi-Yunus sideline meeting will not happen.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 26 March 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Rohingya Refugees Return Dim, Dimmer, and Dimmest

SALEEM SAMAD

Three significant developments have occurred in a week which once again brought the much-talked-about Rohingya refugee crisis to the global media.

First, last week United Nations Secretary General António Guterres visited the Rohingya refugees living in squalid camps in south-east Bangladesh. Besides Bangladesh, Rohingyas are languishing in camps in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The majoritarian Rohingyas are camped in Bangladesh.

Amid aid cuts, the Secretary-General emphasized that the international community cannot turn its back on the Rohingya crisis. “We cannot accept that the international community forgets about the Rohingyas,” he said, adding that he will “speak loudly” to world leaders that more support is urgently needed.

UN aid efforts in Rohingya camps are in jeopardy following reductions of funds announced by major donors, including the United States and several European nations. Guterres described Cox’s Bazar (where the Rohingya camps are situated) as “ground zero” for the impact of these cuts, warning of a looming humanitarian disaster if immediate action is not taken.

The visiting guest joined with the Rohingya for Iftar (not on the same menu as the refugees). The overwhelming majority of Rohingyas are Muslim, among an estimated 1.2 million refugees. A small number are Hindus and Christians. The Secretary-General could not promise how he would augment food aid and the deadline for the safe and sustainable return of the refugees to Myanmar.

Despite being a poor country, Bangladesh is hosting over one million Rohingya refugees who fled violence in neighboring Myanmar. The largest exodus followed brutal attacks by Tatmadaw (Myanmar security forces) in 2017. A series of dreadful events prompted the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to describe the atrocities as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

Myanmar military junta under General Min Aung Hlaing who has ruled Myanmar as the State Administration Council (SAC) chairman since seizing power in the  February 2021 coup d’état overthrowing the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Hlaing refuses to hold parley with the United Nations officials and does not speak with Bangladesh. Also has imposed restrictions on international NGOs and aid agencies. Such arrogance became visible after the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, led by Marzuki Darusman, said that Min Aung Hlaing, along with four other Generals (Soe Win, Aung Kyaw Zaw, Maung Maung Soe, and Than Oo) should be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity (including genocide) in the International Criminal Court (ICC), at The Hague, The Netherlands.

Recently, the Rakhine state, 36,762 square kilometers (14,194 sq mi) bordering Bangladesh has been overrun by battle-hardened Arakan Army (AA) guerillas. The AA dashed all hopes for the repartition of Rohingyas when the guerilla headquarters issued an official statement extending an olive branch to hold dialogue with Bangladesh authorities but on one condition. The agenda for discussion should not include the return of Bengali Muslims (which means Rohingya).

However, AA urges to continue trade and commerce, border security, and a few other bilateral issues. Bangladesh deliberately did not respond. Dhaka does not recognize ethnic military command to be a legitimate authority to hold official talks. Myanmar military junta and the rebels have similar mindsets identifying the Rohingyas as “Bengali Muslims” who have been blamed for illegally migrating from neighboring Bangladesh since a century ago.

The draconian Citizenship Law of 1982 requires individuals to prove that their ancestors lived in Myanmar before 1823, refuse to recognize Rohingya Muslims as one of the nation’s ethnic groups and delist their language as a national language.

Bangladesh has earlier raised the refugee crisis at several international platforms including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Commonwealth, the United Nations, and other global summits. Despite limited or no contributions for the ‘stateless’ Rohingya, instead the world Muslim countries lauded Bangladesh for providing food and shelter to them.

Unfortunately, several attempts to repatriate the refugees fell flat in 2018 and 2019. Instead, Bangladesh blames the intransigent policy of Suu Kyi’s government, which was ousted by military leaders and placed her under house arrest in February 2021. Academicians and researchers on forced migration and the refugee crisis are convinced that there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Second, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warns of a critical funding shortfall for its emergency response operations in Bangladesh, jeopardizing food assistance for over one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Without urgent new funding, monthly rations will be halved to US$6 per person, down from US$12.50 per person – just as refugees were preparing to observe Eid, the biggest Muslim festival at the end of Ramadan at the end of this month. To sustain full rations, WFP urgently requires US$15 million for April, and US$81 million until the end of 2025.

In recent months, as conflicts in Rakhine state were at the peak between AA and the junta’s soldiers, fresh waves of Rohingya refugees exceeding 100,000 have crossed into Bangladesh. The continued trickle of Rohingya seeking safety has further contributed to greater strain on already overstretched resources.

Bangladesh’s government for decades refused to recognize the Rohingya as “refugees”, in an excuse that the government has not signed the Convention on the Status of Refugees of 1951.

For a million population with no legal status, no freedom of movement outside the camps, confined inside barbed wires and no sustainable livelihood opportunities, further cuts will exacerbate protection and security risks, says the UN agency.

The vulnerability is likely to heighten risks of exploitation, trafficking, prostitution, and domestic violence among women and girls. Children are expected to drop out of learning schools and be forced into child labor. There will be a spike in child brides as families resort to desperate measures to survive on meager rations.

Third, on the day when Fortify Rights released its 78-page research report, “I May Be Killed Any Moment: Killings, Abductions, Torture, and Other Serious Violations by Rohingya Militant Groups in Bangladesh” in Dhaka, the special security forces nabbed the Islamic jihadist Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) supremo Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi, commonly known as Ataullah near the capital Dhaka on 18 March without a firefight.

Fortify Rights, an international human rights investigation NGO, recommends that the Government of Bangladesh and international justice mechanisms – including the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and the ICC – investigate Rohingya militant organizations operational in the refugee camps in Bangladesh and prosecute those responsible for war crimes.

Such specific Intel in capturing Ataullah must have been shared by Pakistan’s military establishment in Rawalpindi. International media has been blaming Pakistan’s spy agency ISI for recruitment, training and funding for ARSA.

Indian security agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has kept ARSA under strict surveillance. Monitoring their leader’s sleeper cell, monetary exchanges, and their covert activities.

ARSA first came into the limelight in August 2017 after the jihadist overran several Myanmar’s Border Guards Forces outposts along Bangladesh-Myanmar international borders. After the firefight, ARSA fell back to Bangladesh’s no-man’s-land, which is covered by hill forests and scores of streams.

Earlier, Bangladesh, Myanmar and India refused to accept ARSA as a jihadist outfit. The militant group was described as ‘Rohingya Muslim vigilantes’ with a limited ordinance and disorganized, therefore nothing to be worried about was in their mind.

ARSA’s attacks sparked Tatmadaw’s (Myanmar military) to commit a brutal genocidal campaign against Rohingya Muslims. The troops torched hundreds of villages and went on a rampage for months despite international calls to cease brutality against the Rohingyas.

The Naypyidaw labeled ARSA as an “extremist Bengali terrorists, also Rohingya Muslim terrorists,” warning that its goal is to establish an Islamic state in the Rakhine state. Such an ambitious objective will be difficult to implement in a Buddhist-majority region.

Myanmar blames Pakistan’s dreaded Pakistan’s spy agency ISI for its share in mentoring the jihadist outfit. Their theory that ARSA has been raised, funded, and provides logistics and indoctrination was masterminded by ISI and is also believed by both Bangladesh and India.

Simultaneously, India became worried about the presence of the jihadist outfit at the border of Bangladesh-Myanmar-India. The skirmish with Myanmar troops has also raised the eyebrows of Bangladesh and expressed alarm on the visible presence of ARSA in its territory.

The ARSA militants were mostly recruited from the Rohingya refugees. It was not to anybody’s surprise that the leadership was Pakistan-born Saudi émigrés. They raise funds mostly from Rohingyas living in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Several years ago, in a rare interview with an international media, Ataullah, chief of ARSA said that their objective would be “open war” and “continued [armed] resistance” against the Myanmar government until “citizenship rights were reinstated” of Rohingyas in Myanmar.

The jihadist leader denied having links to the Islamic State or ISIS in a video and said he turned his back on support from Pakistan-based jihadists. The Bangladesh security agencies were skeptical of his claim.

A security expert in Bangladesh explains that ARSA has ideological differences from other terror outfits in the region and has reason to distance itself from the transnational jihadist network.

ARSA operatives are responsible for widespread abduction, extortions, tortures and executions of suspects. The crimes are committed to collect funds for local operations in the world’s largest Rohingya camps, says Fortify Rights in their latest report.

Cash-starved Al Yakin, the volunteer group of ARSA is mostly responsible for gang war in the refugee camps to establish dominance over other non-militant groups in the sprawling camps.

Often breaking news from Rohingya refugee camps of robbers, dacoits, and armed gangs killed in encounters by anti-crime forces – the slain victims are radicalized Rohingya militants.

Fortify Rights urges that Bangladesh should hold the Rohingya militants accountable for war crimes. Bangladesh’s Interim Government should cooperate with international justice mechanisms to investigate crimes and bring potential war criminals to justice.

Donor governments should work with Bangladesh to redouble services for Rohingya at risk, including protective spaces and third-country resettlement, said Fortify Rights.

In an interview that aired on 4 March 2025, the head of Bangladesh Interim Government, Prof Muhammad Yunus, spoke about violence in the refugee camps, saying: “There is lots of violence, lots of drugs, lots of paramilitary activities inside the camps.”

“War crimes are usually committed within the immediate theater of armed conflict but, in this case, specific crimes in Bangladesh are directly connected to the war in Myanmar and constitute war crimes,” says John Quinley, Director at Fortify Rights.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have suffered years of violence and killings at the hands of Rohingya militant groups. Reported killings by camp-based militants numbered 22 in 2021, 42 in 2022, 90 in 2023, and at least 65 in 2024.

The majority of the killings by Rohingya militants documented by Fortify Rights occurred with impunity in the camps, creating a climate of fear for all camp residents, said Fortify Rights.

ARSA and a rival Islamist militant outfit, the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) are engaged in Myanmar’s internal armed conflict. They are both fighting with the Myanmar junta and against the Arakan Army, with very little impact militarily.

To reinforce their armed campaigns inside Myanmar, ARSA, and RSO have abducted refugees in Bangladesh and forced them to fight in Myanmar. Such acts are grave violations of the laws of war and should be investigated as possible war crimes.

The ICC has already established jurisdiction and opened an investigation into cross-border atrocity crimes occurring against Rohingya in both Bangladesh and Myanmar. This should include crimes committed by ARSA and similar groups, said Fortify Rights.

In 2019, the British-born ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan at the time said the court was “aware of a number of acts of violence allegedly committed by ARSA,” noting that the allegations would be kept “under review.”

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 23 March 2025 

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad