NEW DELHI: The recent upheaval in Bangladesh, which led to the removal of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, has escalated the threat of terrorism in India, according to intelligence sources. Although the unrest appeared to be student-led, reports indicate that the violence, particularly against minority Hindus, has been orchestrated by terrorist groups.
Prominent among these groups is the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has reportedly allied with Bangladesh’s Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT). Intelligence suggests that this collaboration aims to conduct terrorist activities in India’s northeastern states. Additionally, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is believed to have played a crucial role in the “regime change” in Bangladesh, providing support to Jamaat-e-Islami and other banned groups, including ABT.
A recent incident in Tripura, where mosques were damaged, has heightened concerns about LeT and ABT’s intentions. Reports from 2022 indicate that 50 to 100 ABT operatives were planning to infiltrate Tripura. Similarly, several ABT-linked terrorists were arrested in Assam that year, highlighting the increasing threat.
ABT, originally founded in 2007 as Jamaat ul-Muslimeen, was later rebranded and banned but resurfaced as Ansar al-Islam, which has been active as the Bangladeshi wing of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). This group has been responsible for numerous killings of secular and progressive individuals in Bangladesh. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, around 425 members of ABT/Ansar al-Islam have been arrested since 2013.
Currently, nine major Islamic terrorist organisations are active in Bangladesh: Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), Ansar al-Islam, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP), Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), Islamic State (ISIS)
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who had a close relationship with New Delhi, had previously taken significant steps to curb these groups. However, the current violence, which initially centered on abolishing a 30 per cent reservation in government jobs for the family’s of 1971 liberation war heroes, now reveals a more complex situation with deeper orchestrators behind the unrest.
In response to the heightened threat, security agencies in West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, and Mizoram, which share borders with Bangladesh, have been put on high alert. Central intelligence agencies have issued warnings following reports that members of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), a banned organization in Bangladesh, might attempt to infiltrate India. This alert comes in the wake of two recent jailbreaks in Bangladesh, which saw the escape of 709 prisoners, some of whom are believed to be terror suspects.
On Tuesday, armed mobs stormed the Sherpur district jail, freeing over 500 prisoners, while around 209 inmates escaped from the Kashimpur prison at Gazipur on the same day. The Border Guarding Agency (BSF) has expressed concerns over the influx of people from Bangladesh into India, particularly those fleeing alleged religious persecution. On Friday, the BSF pushed back 1,000 individuals who were attempting to cross the border seeking refuge.
Indian security forces are intensifying their efforts to monitor and control the situation, keeping a vigilant eye on border areas, hotels, and lodges to prevent the infiltration of anti-India activists.
