Ishaal Zehra
Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina has said that the recent mutiny in the paramilitary force Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) which killed 73 army officers was aimed at triggering a civil war and warned that the masterminds behind the bloody revolt still wanted to achieve their goal. The 33-hour mutiny by the rebel BDR soldiers on February 25-26, 2009 was initially believed to have been caused by disputes over pay and command structure.
Commerce Minister Lt Col (Retd) Faruq Khan, who heads a high-power committee to coordinate the foreign and local investigations into the February 25-26 carnage, said “a dangerous conspiracy is going on to destroy the development of the country". Whereas the State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hassan Mahmoud admitted that terrorist outfits with alleged cross-border links still existed in the country despite years of massive anti-terrorism campaigns.
At a glance, Bangladesh's 37-year history has been a turbulent one, with many incidents of political turmoil and violence, where most of the time cross-border linkage was confirmed at the public level (even if not acknowledged at government level). This recent mutiny reminded me of the tempest that rocked Dhaka University and other educational institutes of Bangladesh, in August 2007 which ended up in the imposition of curfew like situation in the country. At that time too the sole purpose of the tempest creators (master minds), seemingly, was to start a civil war by bringing the people face to face with the armed forces through the so-called student movement. The Bengali media reports later disclosed that the havoc was actually masterminded by the Indian Intelligence Research and Analysis Wing – RAW. In an exclusive interview with VOA Bangla service, the first elected mayor of Rajshahi City, Mr. Md. Mizanur Rahman Minu said that he feels that India is behind the terrorist activities in Bangladesh. Minu said that because of the Indo-Bangladesh porous border, it has not been possible for the government to apprehend the terrorists.
Yet today the same situation is again being sensed in the country. “Foreign hands” had been detected by the new Chief of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Brigadier General Mohammed Mainul Islam who revealed the involvement of outsiders wearing BDR uniform in the mutiny. Ironically, had there been no revelation from General Mainul Islam, people would have believed that BDR personnel targeted Army officers on account resentment over biased treatment as well as difference in their pay, allowances and other benefits. Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Matiur Rahman Nizami, in the same regard, also claimed that the killing mission was executed from Indian intelligence headquarters through close monitoring. Analytically, Mr. Nizami might be true as the increasing frenzy in Bangladesh is only paving an easy way for India to increase her hegemony in political, economical and cultural arenas.
The story is quite simple if considered logically. Bangladesh, having the population of more than 140 million - 40% of whom are below the poverty line - and it is dependent on foreign aid and investment, seems a soft target to digest. And by initiating a civil war in the country many disrupted plans could have been fulfilled like crippling the economy of Bangladesh, disrupting and destroying the road communications and infrastructures thus proving Bangladesh a dysfunctional and failed state and finally paving the way for Indian military invasion.
To achieve the objective, the people of Bangladesh were being targeted in an ingenious way and from all dimensions of life. RAW is exploiting this civil force to meet its own evil objectives. India’s agenda does not obviously end in creating and keeping Bangladesh as a nominally independent country. Since 1972, India has been pouring in huge material and intellectual support to Indianise the mind and psyche of Bangladeshi people. The so-called modern school educational curriculum, in general, and the social sciences, in particular, have been said to be shaped and oriented to Vedic philosophy rather than to Islamic values and virtues. Besides the promotion of narcotics in the society RAW is said to be supplementing terrorism via educational institutes in Bangladesh and the recent BDR mutiny exhibits the reach of Indian tentacles.
There lies a real dilemma for Bangladesh in forging some form of much needed unity to stand concrete against constant onslaught of Indian hegemony. Indian policy makers are well aware that the traditional method of occupying a country by force is neither appreciable nor acceptable in the recent scenario. Today, to run over a country, an aggressor cripples psychologically of the civil force of the nation and reduces its economy to shambles and creates such a situation that its citizens no longer possess mental strength and inspiration to be self- reliant. And RAW is persistently attempting to create such a situation in Bangladesh. It is known to all that Indian intelligence agency is engaged in disruptive activities in Bangladesh since it came into being in 1971 to create the demand for Indian intervention from within the country. As a matter of fact, India has a condemnable history of swallowing Hyderabad, Manvadhar, Goa, Dumn, Deue and Kashmir and of course not forgetting the illegal and conspiratorial annexation of Sikkim, a tiny and rocky mountainous kingdom of Himalayas. Recalling all this it would be quite naive to believe that India is not interested in capturing a strategically important country like Bangladesh as this annexation seems necessary for them to suppress the on-going liberation struggles in North-Eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina has said that the recent mutiny in the paramilitary force Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) which killed 73 army officers was aimed at triggering a civil war and warned that the masterminds behind the bloody revolt still wanted to achieve their goal. The 33-hour mutiny by the rebel BDR soldiers on February 25-26, 2009 was initially believed to have been caused by disputes over pay and command structure.
Commerce Minister Lt Col (Retd) Faruq Khan, who heads a high-power committee to coordinate the foreign and local investigations into the February 25-26 carnage, said “a dangerous conspiracy is going on to destroy the development of the country". Whereas the State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hassan Mahmoud admitted that terrorist outfits with alleged cross-border links still existed in the country despite years of massive anti-terrorism campaigns.
At a glance, Bangladesh's 37-year history has been a turbulent one, with many incidents of political turmoil and violence, where most of the time cross-border linkage was confirmed at the public level (even if not acknowledged at government level). This recent mutiny reminded me of the tempest that rocked Dhaka University and other educational institutes of Bangladesh, in August 2007 which ended up in the imposition of curfew like situation in the country. At that time too the sole purpose of the tempest creators (master minds), seemingly, was to start a civil war by bringing the people face to face with the armed forces through the so-called student movement. The Bengali media reports later disclosed that the havoc was actually masterminded by the Indian Intelligence Research and Analysis Wing – RAW. In an exclusive interview with VOA Bangla service, the first elected mayor of Rajshahi City, Mr. Md. Mizanur Rahman Minu said that he feels that India is behind the terrorist activities in Bangladesh. Minu said that because of the Indo-Bangladesh porous border, it has not been possible for the government to apprehend the terrorists.
Yet today the same situation is again being sensed in the country. “Foreign hands” had been detected by the new Chief of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Brigadier General Mohammed Mainul Islam who revealed the involvement of outsiders wearing BDR uniform in the mutiny. Ironically, had there been no revelation from General Mainul Islam, people would have believed that BDR personnel targeted Army officers on account resentment over biased treatment as well as difference in their pay, allowances and other benefits. Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Matiur Rahman Nizami, in the same regard, also claimed that the killing mission was executed from Indian intelligence headquarters through close monitoring. Analytically, Mr. Nizami might be true as the increasing frenzy in Bangladesh is only paving an easy way for India to increase her hegemony in political, economical and cultural arenas.
The story is quite simple if considered logically. Bangladesh, having the population of more than 140 million - 40% of whom are below the poverty line - and it is dependent on foreign aid and investment, seems a soft target to digest. And by initiating a civil war in the country many disrupted plans could have been fulfilled like crippling the economy of Bangladesh, disrupting and destroying the road communications and infrastructures thus proving Bangladesh a dysfunctional and failed state and finally paving the way for Indian military invasion.
To achieve the objective, the people of Bangladesh were being targeted in an ingenious way and from all dimensions of life. RAW is exploiting this civil force to meet its own evil objectives. India’s agenda does not obviously end in creating and keeping Bangladesh as a nominally independent country. Since 1972, India has been pouring in huge material and intellectual support to Indianise the mind and psyche of Bangladeshi people. The so-called modern school educational curriculum, in general, and the social sciences, in particular, have been said to be shaped and oriented to Vedic philosophy rather than to Islamic values and virtues. Besides the promotion of narcotics in the society RAW is said to be supplementing terrorism via educational institutes in Bangladesh and the recent BDR mutiny exhibits the reach of Indian tentacles.
There lies a real dilemma for Bangladesh in forging some form of much needed unity to stand concrete against constant onslaught of Indian hegemony. Indian policy makers are well aware that the traditional method of occupying a country by force is neither appreciable nor acceptable in the recent scenario. Today, to run over a country, an aggressor cripples psychologically of the civil force of the nation and reduces its economy to shambles and creates such a situation that its citizens no longer possess mental strength and inspiration to be self- reliant. And RAW is persistently attempting to create such a situation in Bangladesh. It is known to all that Indian intelligence agency is engaged in disruptive activities in Bangladesh since it came into being in 1971 to create the demand for Indian intervention from within the country. As a matter of fact, India has a condemnable history of swallowing Hyderabad, Manvadhar, Goa, Dumn, Deue and Kashmir and of course not forgetting the illegal and conspiratorial annexation of Sikkim, a tiny and rocky mountainous kingdom of Himalayas. Recalling all this it would be quite naive to believe that India is not interested in capturing a strategically important country like Bangladesh as this annexation seems necessary for them to suppress the on-going liberation struggles in North-Eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh.
It wasn’t surprising at all when General Mainul Islam said that the BDR mutiny was a conspiracy by outside forces. Even history is evident that India's assistance in the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, did not originate from their sense of humanity for the people of Bangladesh, but to dismember Pakistan and finally merge them to 'greater Bharat, what Nehru termed as 'Aakhand Bharat'. At that time probably the Indian leaders thought that dismemberment of Pakistan would lead to the accession of Bangladesh to India but unfortunately this dream of them could not materialize even after the lapse of 38 years but hats off to the consistent nature of India that she has still kept her dream alive and is still working for its establishment.
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