Rising Islamist nexus in Bangladesh should ring alarm bells in Delhi

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2 days ago

One of the most significant events that India should be wary of is the Four Brotherhood Alliance in Bangladesh read more
After the regime change in Bangladesh, India's concerns have only grown on its northeastern borders. The Muhammad Yunus-led interim government has sought to build alliances and make antagonistic statements that have shaken the foundations of the once robust India-Bangladesh relationship.
Immediately upon assuming power, the Yunus-led government released anti-India terrorists like Jashimuddin Rahmani of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), who called for Jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. Abdus Salam Pintu was released from jail after 17 years. Pintu aided the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) in carrying out terror attacks against India. Lutfozzaman Babar was released after being arrested for trying to smuggle ten truckloads of arms via Chittagong in support of the terror organisation United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
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With Pakistan the relationship has gone from strength to strength. From removing the mandatory one hundred per cent inspection of all cargo from Pakistan, senior military officers meeting in Islamabad to discuss strengthening defence ties, and the ISI chief's visit to Bangladesh for the first time to build intelligence-sharing networks to now Pakistan, China, and Bangladesh launching a trilateral cooperation mechanism for trade and investment. The signs being given to India are clear. Bangladesh is recalibrating its India policy.
One of the most significant events that India should be wary of is the Four Brotherhood Alliance in Bangladesh. A new take on Myanmar's Three Brotherhood Alliance that included the powerful Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and Ta'ang National Army, who together launched Operation 1027 against the Tatmadaw.
The Four Brotherhood Alliance includes the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Rohingya Salvation Organisation (RSO), Rohingya Islami Mahaz (RIM), and Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA). ARSA, founded in 2013 as Harakah al-Yaqin (faith movement), was trained by the Taliban. The leader of the insurgent group is Ataullah abu Ammar Jununi, who was born in Pakistan, of Rohingya descent, and grew up in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
ARSA was responsible for the Kha Maung Seik massacre, where 99 Hindu women and children were killed. They have also been known to be involved in drug trafficking and other illicit activities and are declared as a terrorist group not just in Myanmar but also in Malaysia. RSO at one point opposed ARSA and is said to have been used by the Tatmadaw to counter ARSA. However, in March this year, Dhaka Tribune reported with photographs a critical meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) with RSO and ARSA members.
RIM is led by Maulvi Selim Ullah, who controls many madrasas in Bangladesh. ARA, led by Nabi Hossain, a major trafficker of the methamphetamine Yaba pill, had a bounty of one million takas on his head by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). Nabi was on the run, but last year the first reports emerged of him having returned to Bangladesh. ARA is reportedly a proxy of Pakistan. This coalition of Rohingya militants itself is said to be under the aegis of Pakistan's ISI.
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It is also known that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jama'at Mujahideen Bangladesh, which aligns with the global Islamist group Al Qaeda, have provided training to these Rohingya groups. Under the Bangladesh interim government, not only have radical forces been encouraged to align with each other, but the difficult relationship with Pakistan has been bridged. The Rohingya issue seems to be the pivot that all international powers are using to gain a foothold in Bangladesh. Interestingly, in the near future observers may see a nexus emerge out of the volatility in Bangladesh.
It was in 2016 that Turkey withdrew its ambassador in Dhaka following the execution of Bangladeshi Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami. And on the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly, Bangladesh organised a meeting on the Rohingya issue. At the time Sheikh Hasina implicitly denied Turkey's proposal to set up shelters in Cox Bazar over concerns of interference and radicalisation by the Islamist government. But not before Turkey's first lady, Emine Erdogan, along with Turkish politicians and aid agencies, visited Rohingya camps. This visit was followed by a high-powered Qatari delegation.
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The fact that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has ambitions of creating a caliphate in the sense of the old Ottoman Empire that collapsed with Turkey's defeat in World War I has not been lost on anyone. Neither has Ankara's alignment with Pakistan. However, Erdogan's rise was not without his allies. His Justice and Development Party (AKP) found a benefactor in Qatar. Many observers equate Qatar's foreign policy to China's 'String of Pearls' policy that aims to strategically invest in countries through infrastructure projects. In comparison, Qatar's foreign policy is often called the 'string of Misbaha' policy, wherein observers believe that Qatar is investing in countries through religious influence, and Bangladesh is the latest 'bead' in the string.
On a recent visit to Qatar, Yunus received a red-carpet welcome. He met Moza Bint Nasser, the mother of Qatar's emir and the chair of the Qatar Foundation, where it's reported that she promised support to revamp Bangladesh's early childhood education. And while India-Bangladesh trade ties are seeing an historic low, Yunus also has met with Turkish delegations since he took over the reins of Bangladesh. Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat, during the meeting, suggested that Turkey could take over the role of India and other nations in Bangladesh's import markets. Qatar, on the other hand, is also planning to take hundreds of Bangladeshi soldiers to work in the Qatar Armed Forces, utilising them in infantry, engineering, and medical.
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The new Four Brotherhood Alliance of the Rohingyas is not a stand-alone alliance; the alliance is wider. The radicalisation that Bangladesh is facing is irreversible, just like Afghanistan in India's neighbourhood. Let's not forget it was recently that maps appeared in Dhaka University of a 'Greater Bangladesh'. The map encompassed Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, the northeastern states of India, and Myanmar's Rakhine state. The stamps of Sultanate-e-Bangla, a radical Islamist group that has connections to a Turkish NGO, were found on the posters. While all of these groups find common ground and forge alliances, it is incumbent on India to recalibrate its own relationships in the neighbourhood and find friends in the most difficult of places.
Rami Niranjan Desai is an anthropologist and a scholar of the northeast region of India. She is a columnist and author and presently a Distinguished Fellow at the India Foundation, New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Firstpost.
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