Bangladeshi NCP leader Hasnat Abdullah claimed that Dhaka can help separate the Seven Sisters states of the North-East from India by harboring anti-India and separatist forces. Let us tell you that many such groups are active in North-East states.
New Delhi. Bangladesh’s National Citizen Party (NCP) leader Hasnat Abdullah warned that Dhaka could help in separating the Seven Sisters (7 states of the North-East) by harboring India’s enemies and separatist groups. These seven states include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Four of these states, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, share land with Bangladesh.
Threat to provide shelter to anti-India forces
Addressing a gathering at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka, Abdullah said, we will give shelter to separatist and anti-India forces in Bangladesh and then separate the Seven Sisters State from India. The crowd present there clapped on this statement of Abdullah. Let us tell you that India has long been accusing separatist groups operating in the North-East of using Bangladesh as a haven, transit route and logistics base.
Many separatist groups active in Tripura
In the case of Tripura, separatist groups like the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) have been repeatedly linked by Indian security agencies to camps and handlers based in Bangladesh. Officials said that after the attacks, the cadres used to go to Bangladesh to escape from the security forces and there the training and purchase of weapons took place.
Bangladesh’s fundamentalist organizations are influencing India
Bangladesh had also given shelter to Islamic extremist networks linked to India. Groups such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and later Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were identified by Indian agencies for their cross-border presence and promotion of radicalization and logistics networks affecting eastern India. This situation changed significantly after Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2009, when Dhaka began a sustained crackdown on insurgent groups targeting India. However, after the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina, extremist organizations are becoming stronger again.