Author: M.V.Kamath
Publication: Free Press Journal
Date: September 30, 2004
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/300904-features.html
It is bad enough to have a problem
with Pakistan over Jammu & Kashmir, or with Nepal over Maoist rebels.
Pakistan has been worrying India since 1947 and is apparently in no mood
to relax. General Musharraf is sounding harsher by the day. Perhaps he
should be told that if he continues on these lines India may given up further
talks with Islamabad and reserve the right to bomb terrorist training camps
in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir territory. Such a warning needs to be given
considering that terrorist activities have been increasing since May and
civilians are getting killed. There is need to tell Pakistan that it cannot
get away literally with murder. But Bangladesh is turning out as a worse
enemy.
One would have thought that after
all that India had done to help Bangladeshis liberate themselves from Pakistani
tyranny they would show signs of gratitude. Of that there are none. There
never were. After the murder of Sheikh Mujib and some members of his family,
Bangladehis have become increasingly fundamentalist. General Zia-ur-Rehman
lifted the ban on the communal and fundamentalist parties and desecularised
the Constitution in 1977; since then the liberal elements have been given
no respite. To make matters worse, General H. M. Ershad declared Islam
as the state religion of Bangladesh in 1988 after which Islamic fundamentalism
received an additional boost. It is creating havoc in Bangladesh and problems
for India.
To say that Pakistan's ISI has been
very active in its former eastern province is to say the obvious. It has
been supported by Saudi Arabia and some other Islamic countries resulting
in the ascension of the Jamaat-e- Islami and some other outfits like the
Jammatul- Mujahideen, Sahadat al Hikma and the JMJB, which are being liberally
financed by petro-dollars.
India should long ago have raised
the matter with the rulers in Riyadh; that it has apparently failed to
do. The net result is the setting up in Bangladesh some 6,500 quomi madrassahs
which have become breeding ground for terrorists. According to Bibhuti
Bhushan Nandy, former Additional Secretary of Research and Analysis wing
(RAW), beginning in 1984 the Jammat-e-Islami recruited no fewer than 5,000
madrassah alumni (from a total of about 1,462,500) to participate in the
jehad against Soviet presence in Afghanistan.
Some of these jehadists are apparently
active along the Pakistan-India border as well. What is disturbing is the
active anti-Hindu sentiments that have been encouraged in Bangladesh. The
backlash to the demolition of the Babri masjid in Bangladesh is well known.
The demolition triggered the worst ever pogrom on the minority Hindu community.
Loot, arson, rape and destruction
and desecration of Hindu temples and shrines became common with the tacit
encouragement, of the government. And everyone knows what happened to the
Bengali writer Taslima Nasrin who depicted the post-Babri atrocities in
her seminal work Lajja. Fatwas pronouncing death sentence on her were issued
by mullahs in their anger and poor Taslima had to leave her country for
her safety. The persistence of anti-Hindu sentiments continues.
New Delhi had to lodge a strong
protest with Dhaka over certain vicious anti-India remarks made by Bangladesh
Foreign Minister Morshed Khan. Delhi was upset to hear that Bangladeshi
government circles linked India with a murderous attack on an Awami League
rally in Dhaka on 21 August. In Delhi, Foreign Secretary Shayam Saran had
to call Bangladesh High Commissioner on 10 September to issue him a verbal
`demarche' expressing India's displeasure.
It is common knowledge especially
in Assam that the leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
have been given shelter in Dhaka and Bangladesh is also giving support
to training camps of north east insurgents along its borders with India.
Bangladesh is also giving support to training camps of north east insurgents
along its borders with India.
Bangladesh refuses to accept this
charge and early in September Foreign Minister Morshed Khan rubbished New
Delhi's concerns in this regard saying that they could have a "negative
impact" on bilateral ties.
Norshed Khan went further to say
that Dhaka could end India's three billion dollar trade with Bangladesh
if India persisted with its charges. It is not that Bangladesh is unaware
of what is going on.
Almost six months ago ten truck
loads of arms intended for insurgent groups in the North east had been
seized by Bangladeshi authorities but all that Dhaka did was to order the
arrest of the truck drivers ad cleaners. According to intelligence sources
the captured arms were worth more than $ 7.5 millions, enough to arm half
a brigade. The arms had been seized in Chittagong on the night of 2 April.
The matter is being hushed up even
though Bangladesh authorities had promised India that it will share whatever
"substantive information" has been gathered as to the source of the arms
and the international nexus between insurgents and alien governments. According
to one source, the payment for the arms had been arranged by a "foreign
country" which has interests in destabilising India.
Indeed, on August 19, addressing
a press conference in Guwahati, Assam Chief Minister Tarum Gogoi said that
the recent upsurge of violent attacks by the ULFA clearly indicated that
the outfit is working at the behest of certain foreign agencies to subvert
India from within. As he put it: "The governments of these countries may
not be directly involved, but the fact that these neighboring countries
are used as safe havens by the ULFA is tantamount to abetting terrorism
in the region". Since then India has given Bangladesh a fresh list of insurgent
training camps being operated there.
India wants Bangladesh also to hand
over ULFA chief Parish Barua. During talks with Bangladesh Rifles (BDR)
last month, India's Border Security Force had submitted a list of 195 camps
run from Bangladeshi territory. That list has since been updated. It should
not be difficult for India to invade Bangladesh and smash these camps but
Delhi is unwilling to take this extreme steps for fear of international
repercussions.
And so just as Pakistan in the west
is using India's recalcitrance to take firm action, so is Bangladesh in
the East and the net sufferer is India. It is not that western nations
are unaware of what is going on in Bangladesh.
In a recent interview to Outlook
(13 September) the CIA's Directorate of Operations J. Cofer Black said
that Bangladesh's situation was of great interest to the United States.
He told his interviewer: "The United States is opposed to all terrorists.
We approach terrorism as a global issue. On my last trip (to Delhi) I got
some good insights from the Indian team on what is going on in Bangladesh.
We're very mindful ... We are looking
at Bangladesh more closely. I'm personally interested in having an accurate
picture. We plan to look into and if correct confirm the Indian view. We
need to determine exactly the threat of terrorists not only to Bangladesh
but also the potential utilisation of Bangladesh as a platform toproject
terrorism internationally". But these are so many words. The United States
has done practically nothing to warn Dhaka.
Only recently The Statesman (8 September)
published an article by Bibhuti Bhushan Nandy, a former RAW official which
said: "The countrywide post-election Hindu cleansing operations in 2001
jointly conducted by the BNP and Jamaat workers subjected the minority
Hindu community to a wave of centrally planned and directed murder, loot,
extortion, arson and gang rape that triggered a massive exodus of Hindus
to India. Later, operating at the micro level, the fundamentalists, notably
guerillas of the Jammat-e-Islami affiliate Islamic Chhatra Shibir, selectively
killed a number of leading Hindus like college principal, school teachers,
priests and Buddhist monks to sustain and exacerbate the sense of insecurity
among the minorities".
In March this year, 11 members of
a Hindu family at Sadhanpur Village in Chittagong district were burnt to
death by hired criminals. None of these stories get reported in the Indian
media.
According to B. B. Nandy, "thanks
to the inability and unwillingness of the police, none of the cases of
terrorist attacks have been resolved. Instead of seriously investigating
the horrendous crimes, the government has used them with cynical persistence
to harras and persecute opposition leaders and secular intellectuals who
had raised their voice against he atrocities on the minorities".
India has to act and act sharply
and decisively. Dhaka must come to known that India will not tolerate persecution
of Hindus in Bangladesh. At the same time India must identity Bangladehi
Muslims now working in their thousands and millions and pack them off to
where they came from.
According to Nandy "as a result
of unrestrained illegal immigration, 20 million aliens (15 per cent of
the Bangladesh population) have settled down in the border districts of
West Bengal and other north eastern states, radically changing the demographic
structure and communal complexion of the whole area". This is totally impermissible.
These people have to be returned
to their homeland lest they create problems in northeast in the years to
come. For every threat that the Bangladesh Foreign Minister makes, India
must respond with concrete action. India, especially the country's northeastern
states, cannot afford to give shelter to Muslim Bangladeshis.
The situation is such that Bangladeshi
Muslims have spread all over the country and are especially to be found
in Kolkata, Bihar, Delhi ad even Mumbai. Quick and swift action has to
be taken against them, not only for protecting local labour interests but
on a larger plane, protecting India's national security. There has been
enough complacency so far and the time for action has come.