NEW DELHI: Bangladesh aligns with India in both geography and culture. New Delhi is, in fact, the very reason for the birth of Bangladesh, as India was the key in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 that led to the defeat of Pakistan and the creation of a new sovereign state called Bangladesh by detaching the old title of East Pakistan. Under Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League regime, these historical ties with India were cherished and upheld. Bangladesh reiterated the deeds and developmental assistance of India and Delhi-Dhaka relations were a testament to the good bilateral relations.
However, the scenario took a complete U-turn once the Sheikh Hasina regime was dismantled in a massive student uprising in August 2024. Since the interim government took charge of the country’s administration under its Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, Delhi-Dhaka relations derailed completely. Anti-India rhetoric spiked in Bangladesh, and the nexus with Pakistan escalated. Hindu minorities are leading a miserable life in the country as the Islamic terror organisations are revolutionising their stronghold in Bangladesh, which was suppressed during the Hasina rule. These significant developments in Bangladesh pose a major security and strategic challenge to India, particularly to the state of West Bengal, which shares a large border with Bangladesh.
The India-Bangladesh border in the state of West Bengal remains largely unfenced, as the long-held cultural and civilizational link between people on both sides of the border is respected and cherished. However, with the brewing radical and anti-India activities of the Islamic terror groups on the Bangladeshi soil lately, a major security alert has been sounded in India. Indian security officials assert that the radical Islamist groups have taken advantage of the political instability, law & order weakness in Dhaka, and thus have regrouped and consolidated themselves to channelise atrocities, especially targeting India, with no check or accountability from the interim regime.
These radical activities will indeed have a spillover effect on India, especially on bordering states such as West Bengal, thereby posing a major challenge to the country’s national security architecture. Moreover, Bangladesh can be nurtured as a potential ground for the anti-India Islamic activities of Pakistan, which are aiming to infiltrate into India through the porous Indo-Bangladesh border.
Islamic groups to infiltrate via porous border & indoctrinate the Muslim population of Bengal
The core aim of the Islamic terror groups of Bangladesh is to infiltrate into India via the porous borders across West Bengal and indoctrinate the Muslim population in the state, thus inciting them against New Delhi. This poses a severe security, political and strategic concern to India. The predominant Bangladesh-based Islamic terror groups are Jam-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh(JMB), Ansar al-Islam, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), etc. Various other emerging terror outfits are influenced by the radical jihadist outfits, such as the Islamic State(IS), which are known for their notorious deeds across the globe.
As per the security officials, these terror outfits had earlier established grounds in West Bengal and were running organised networks or activities in the Indian state. However, under Sheikh Hasina’s rule, they were suppressed, and some were imprisoned. With the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina regime and the rise of the interim administration, all the radicals who were released from prison are reorganising themselves and revolutionising anti-India rhetoric, thus posing a security challenge to India, with West Bengal being its epicentre.
These aforementioned radical terror organisations are known for calibrating terror attacks, indoctrinating the minds, manufacturing hazardous explosives, operating sleeper cells, etc. They are predominantly infamous for catalysing ideological radicalisation through social media, exclusive apps, and encrypted messages, where they channelise online radical religious content and pitch the people against India using these novel technologies and emerging strategies.
India and Bangladesh share an international border of 4,096 km, and the state of West Bengal comprises a substantial portion of this border, which runs through densely populated areas. Such a landscape makes it difficult to fence or to conduct surveillance. Taking advantage of this strategic challenge, the Islamist radical terror groups from Bangladesh seek to penetrate into India and fulfil their illicit motives. The densely populated area with limited surveillance is exploited by the Islamist groups for transporting arms, munitions, hazardous explosives and even radicalised terrorists.
Another prickly issue in the border region is that the landmass in the border holds a majority Muslim population. For example, the border districts of Murshidabad, Malda, and the North and South 24 Parganas have a Muslim population exceeding 50 per cent. As per the analysis by the security agencies, the terror outfits of Bangladesh use this as a demographic advantage to channelise their terror motives against India. They easily indoctrinate the masses to fulfil their terror agenda.
It is said that the main agenda of the Bangladesh-linked terror groups is the ideological radicalisation of the young people before equipping them with weapons. They are using digital platforms as tools of indoctrination to which the youths are apparently connected to in the modern era. The young people of West Bengal are particularly vulnerable to this poison, which New Delhi has to be vigilant about. On the lines of religious identity, the global Muslim persecution card sympathises with the youths by crafting fake narratives and irrational propaganda.
Thus, the strategic challenge encountered by New Delhi is to protect the country, its youth and its people from the ideological radicalisation attempts emanating from Bangladesh, especially in the state of West Bengal. This security crisis can be cracked with adequate cooperation between the central government and the West Bengal state government. This crisis is beyond border fencing, which is not a lone solution. Awareness has to be nourished among the youth about the illicit motives of the Islamic groups. Security agencies have to work around the clock to ensure national security.
Coordinated government effort, educating the populace at the remote & grassroot level, and comprehensive strategic vigilance with swift intelligence sharing can indeed strengthen the national security apparatus of India at all levels-ideologically, politically, strategically and in terms of security. Henceforth, the nation and its people are protected from the evil eye of radical terror groups, who consider the state of West Bengal as a breeding ground. But, the strong message is that no remote region of India can be used for illicit anti-India deeds. The sovereignty and security of the country is not at stake and will always be protected.
