Following recent mayhem in Bangladesh that resulted in the loss of public properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars and the loss of above US dollar 7 billion to country’s economy, Al Qaeda-connected Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is led by convicted terrorist Tarique Rahman and their ideological ally – Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) have mobilised their members and activists in pushing-forward massive propaganda campaign in support of “Ghazwa-e-Hind”.
A number of radical Islamic militancy outfits, including Al Qaeda, have been promoting “Ghazwa-e-Hind”, an ideology based on some controversial narratives of radical Islam. According to these groups, since its formation, AQIS has focused on “Ghazwa-e-Hind” (the righteous battle in India), an ideology based on some contested Prophetic narratives.
Meanwhile, the nexus of Islamists, militants and terrorists led by BNP and Jamaat made frantic bids to spread dangerous disinformation, stating that members of Indian security agencies and “crisis management experts” arrived in Bangladesh following the July 18 mayhem under the garb of student’s protests and taught law enforcement agency members how to shoot at eyes and heads of the protestors. They also spread rumours stating that “Indian agents” melted into the mob of demonstrators and led the destructive activities targeting key-point installations [state-owned Bangladesh Television (BTV)] and other infrastructural establishments.
They also claim that “India took revenge on Bangladesh nationals boycotting Indian products following the January 7 election” by sending their trained personnel to Bangladesh.
BNP-Jamaat nexus further claims that once the Awami League Government under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina loses power, India will immediately attack Bangladesh. Citing reference to a November 26, 1975, CIA report titled “Indian military capabilities for intervention in Bangladesh”, – BNP-Jamaat states the CIA has provided a map of the Indian invasion of Bangladesh.
The Islamist, militancy and terrorist nexus further claims that during the July 17-24 “student protests”, twenty-million students came on the street without “help, support and funding of anyone”.
In the propaganda content, the BNP-Jamaat nexus states: “There is a Mossad activist named Richard Benkin. Born in America. For the past 20 years, he has been going to the remote villages of India, sitting with RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] leaders and telling the common people why they need to invade Bangladesh. After 1971, when the Indian army left Bangladesh, they looted and took away everything. It burned what it could not take. They are still mad at you. They rejoice at your brother’s death. They cheer by hanging your sister. Why are you quiet?”
In reality, Richard Benkin is neither an activist of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad nor does he have any relations with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He has been running anti-Bangladesh propaganda by collecting donations from Hindus in Bangladesh and India by falsely proclaiming as an American citizen with “deeper connections” with Israeli Mossad, prominent figures in Israel, as well as American lawmakers from the Democratic and Republican Party. Prominent cohorts of Benkin in India are Amitabh Tripathy (member of Benkin’s organisation named ‘Forcefield NFP’) and Shipan Kumer Basu (a fraud who is currently on the run following the infamous SSC scandal in West Bengal, India) and a few others while in Bangladesh he is patronised by a local English newspaper named Asian Age. According to the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press report, in 2020, he was accused of running a fake nursing home and luring helpless females in the facility into having physical relations.
According to a report published in Blitz, for the past two decades, an American national named Richard Benkin has been enjoying almost a saintly image amongst Hindus in India while he also emerged as the neo-Messiah or saviour of Baluch and, lately, Afghans. On social media platforms and through his website called ‘Interfaith Strength’, Richard Benkin was regularly boasting of “great success” in pursuing cases in favour of Hindus and Baluch in the US Congress and Senate as he claimed to be having connections in the US Capitol. But his efforts were no charity or selfless actions.
Visiting his Facebook profile, people would see a photograph displayed as a ‘Featured Photo’, where Richard Benkin is seen with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He surely is displaying this photo to fool everyone into believing that he is an individual who has connections with the Indian PM. In reality, this photograph was taken almost two decades ago when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujrat. Onwards, Narendra Modi never granted him any further meeting appointments as by then, he learned about Benkin’s dubious activities and extracting cash from Hindus.
One may ask why the BNP-Jamaat propaganda material contains the name Richard Benkin. Is it because he has lately joined hands with BNP through Shipan Kumer Basu, a longtime paid agent of the Al Qaeda-connected party?
