Swarajya Exclusive: Danger At India’s Doorstep — Pakistan’s ISI Back In Bangladesh, Imparting Training To Rohingyas, Islamist Terror Groups

Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is back in Bangladesh. 

And this time, it has started imparting training to Rohingyas in Naikhongchhari sub-district of Bandarban district in the country’s Chittagong division and to Islamist terror groups in Brahmanbaria district bordering Tripura and inside the Khadimnagar National Park in Sylhet district bordering Meghalaya.

The ISI has flown in a few ex-soldiers of the Pakistan Army’s elite Special Services Group (SSG) to oversee the training of Rohingyas and Islamic terror groups.

This is happening with the concurrence, and connivance, of the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus. 

Immediately after being installed as the head of the interim government on 8 August, Yunus reversed Bangladesh’s policy of keeping Pakistan at bay and started forging close links with Islamabad. 

According to information gathered from multiple sources in Bangladesh and corroborated by Indian intelligence agencies, more than 50 Rohingyas and about 75 cadres of two Islamic terror outfits, the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, are being trained at camps in three districts.

Naikhongchhari Camp in Bandarban

Rohingya men, all between 18 and 30 years of age, are being given training in arms, making and planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs), guerrilla warfare, surveying maps and terrain, and subterfuge. 

At least 10 former Pakistani army officers and men and half a dozen ex-soldiers of the Bangladesh Army are training the Rohingyas at a large camp in the Shali Hills in the Gumdum Union (a ‘union’ is an administrative unit usually encompassing nine villages) of Naikhongchhari upazila (sub-district) of Chittagong division’s Bandarban district.

This camp is about 23 kilometres (km) east of the Kutupalong refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar in Chittagong, which has over 9.5 lakh Rohingya refugees. 

Naikhongchhari was, until about two decades ago, home to the Marma people, who are ethnically affiliated to the people of Rakhine province. The Marmas are mostly Buddhists.

Muslims from other areas were encouraged by the government to settle in the upazila, and the Marmas were reduced to a hopeless minority within a span of just a decade. 

Over the last five years or so, thousands of Rohingyas have settled down in Naikhongchhari and other areas of Chittagong division. The result: the Marmas have been reduced to just over 17 per cent of the population of Bandarban district. 

The training camp for Rohingyas at Naikhongchhari is located on a hilly tract beside a perennial stream. A Marma village used to exist there till a decade ago, but the tribals were driven out by Bengali-speaking Muslim and Rohingya settlers. 

The entire area has now been made ‘out of bounds’ for not just the Marmas but also Bengali-speaking Muslims. 

Police have set up checkposts on the unpaved roads leading to the area, and only those with special permits are allowed to pass. Paramilitary forces, like the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), also maintain vigil and patrol the area frequently.

Training Camp at Brahmanbaria

About 15 cadres of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), which is closely linked to the Islamic Chhatra Shibir (the student wing of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami), are reported to have reached the training camp located on the banks of the Titas river at Masaura in late November.

The area is remote and inaccessible and can be reached only on foot. It is about 15 km southeast of Brahmanbaria town, the headquarters of the eponymous district. 

But the journey to the camp site, it is learnt, takes over three hours on foot. That is why this remote location has been chosen for establishing a camp to impart arms and other training to ABT terrorists.    

Also, Masaura is about 15 km west of the Indo-Bangladesh border in Tripura. Many portions of the international border in that sector are unfenced and provide easy access to Indian territory. 

It is learnt that another 20-odd cadres of the ABT are expected to join the camp, which is being supervised by a former major of the Pakistan Army’s SSG, within the next two weeks. 

The ABT terrorists who are in the camp — a couple of barracks, living quarters of the trainers, and facilities like dining areas and kitchen, all laid around a football-sized field and adjacent to a small firing range — are in the 18-25 age group. 

At least four retired soldiers of the Bangladesh Army are also part of the training team. One is a retired warrant officer (a JCO), one is a former sergeant, and two are former corporals. All four are learnt to have served in the Bangladesh Army’s elite Para Commando Brigade. 

According to sources in Bangladesh, while this camp is currently operating out of makeshift structures, construction of sheds and structures made of corrugated iron sheets and concrete is going on in full swing. 

An underground structure is also being constructed and is likely to be used as an armoury. A pumphouse has been constructed on the banks of the Titas river to pump water to the camp site. 

Five large PVC (polyvinyl) tanks, each with a capacity of 10,000 litres, have been transported and installed at the camp site. This, say intelligence sources, provides a fair idea of the capacity of the camp. 

“Provisions have clearly been made at that camp in Brahmanbaria district for at least 50 to 55 people. That means there will be 10 trainers and supervisors and a few support staff, and the rest will be trainees. That’s the usual ratio of trainers to trainees,” a former Para Commando Brigade officer, who associated himself with the Awami League after retirement and is now in hiding in India, told Swarajya. 

Apart from the former SSG officer, a retired subedar and a retired naik of the Pakistani army are also in this camp as trainers. 

The training of the ABT terrorists has already started, and the training module is the same as that in the Naikhongchhari camp. A number of sophisticated weapons have also been transported to the camp. 

The Training Camp in Sylhet

This camp, which started functioning in mid-November, is still a work in progress. Located inside the Khadimnagar National Park near Sylhet city, it is accessible through a small track leading off N2, the national highway that connects Dhaka with Tamabil on the Indo-Bangladesh border. 

While 10 cadres of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir have been undergoing training at the camp from November-end onwards, another 30 to 40 cadres are expected to join over the next couple of months. 

This camp is near the Jalalabad cantonment that houses the Para Commando Brigade. The Khadimnagar National Park’s forest adjoins the Jalalabad cantonment, which is also the headquarters of the Bangladesh Army’s 17th Infantry Division and its School of Infantry and Tactics. 

As is the case with the training camp for Rohingyas in Naikhongchhari, this camp in Sylhet is also under strict surveillance, and even the local people of Khadimnagar, a small town next to the cantonment, have recently been asked to keep away from the forest. 

A former captain of the Para Commando Brigade’s 1st battalion is in charge of the camp. He has a former senior warrant officer and two former sergeants of the same unit under him. One retired subedar-major and two naib subedars of the Pakistan Army’s SSG are also trainers at this camp. 

Incidentally, this camp is about an hour’s drive from Meghalaya’s Dawki, which lies on the Indo-Bangladesh border. This portion of the international border is unfenced and porous in many places. 

The camp inside the Khadimnagar National Park is well camouflaged. According to impeccable sources inside Bangladesh, a few structures like barracks and living quarters, underground bunkers, and training paraphernalia have been built. 

More construction is underway, and everything is being supervised by a serving mid-ranking officer of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the defence intelligence unit of Bangladesh’s armed forces, who is based in the Jalalabad cantonment.  

The current chief of the DGFI, Major General Mohammad Jahangir Alam, is suspected to have links with the Pakistan Army and also the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. He was posted as the DGFI chief by the Yunus administration in October this year. 

Apart from being trained in handling sophisticated arms and making and planting IEDs, the recruits in these camps are reportedly being taught how to sabotage communication links, gather intelligence, infiltrate security agencies, and carry out manhunts (to search, locate, and exterminate high-value targets). 

Yunus’ Outreach to Pakistan

Following the fall of the Hasina government, and under the stewardship of Yunus, pro-Pakistani elements in Bangladesh’s security establishment have turned active. 

The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, which has emerged as a strong ally of Yunus, is known for its pro-Pakistan stance. The Jamaat has been sending delegations to Pakistan since the end of August on Yunus’ behalf to help forge close ties between the two countries. 

Yunus has taken a personal interest in building close ties with Pakistan. He met Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly at the end of September.

Apart from making pro-Pakistan noises like demanding the revival of the South Asian bloc SAARC, Yunus has also been facilitating the renewal of military ties with Pakistan. 

In order to make it easy for Pakistanis to visit Bangladesh, Yunus has ordered the removal of travel curbs on Pakistanis and persons of Pakistani origin living in other countries. 

This has resulted in a number of Pakistanis, including serving and retired members of Pakistan’s armed forces and its ISI, travelling to Bangladesh through Gulf nations since late September. 

Sources in Bangladesh say that the immigration at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport is being handled by officers handpicked by top police and army officers, who are part of Yunus’ outreach to Islamabad. 

It is learnt that the entry of many Pakistanis — ISI officers and former SSG soldiers — is being kept a closely-guarded secret, and records of their entry into Bangladesh are even being destroyed. 

There are reports of a Pakistani military aircraft landing in Dhaka in mid-November. However, those reports could not be independently verified by Swarajya. 

Pakistan’s Footprint in Bangladesh After 1975

Pakistan, soon after the assassination of ‘Bangabandhu’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman in August 1975, made a comeback in Bangladesh through powerful elements in the Bangladesh armed forces, who had secretly retained links with Pakistan, and through the Jamaat. 

Pakistan’s ISI became active in Bangladesh and started providing military aid and training to cadres of militant groups of North East India, starting from the reign of prime minister Kazi Zafar Ahmed (under the military rule of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad) in 1989. 

This continued when Begum Khaleda Zia became prime minister in March 1991, after Ershad was forced to step down following a pro-democracy mass uprising. 

It was only after Hasina became prime minister in June 1996 that the ISI was sent packing and all help to the militants of North East India was cut off. Hasina even got leaders of some of the rebel outfits arrested and handed them over to India. 

However, when Begum Khaleda Zia returned to power in October 2001, she encouraged the then army chief, Lt Gen Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury (he had served in the Pakistani army before 1971 and did not participate in the 1971 liberation war), to re-establish ties with Pakistan. 

After Begum Zia’s term ended in October 2006, the then army chief, General Moeen Uddin Ahmed, manipulated the caretaker government that was mandated to conduct the next election within three months to exercise unbridled power and then declared an emergency in January 2007 to become the de facto military dictator of the country. 

During General Ahmed’s de facto military rule, fronted by economist Fakruddin Ahmed as the ‘chief adviser’ of a caretaker government (the position that Yunus now holds), Pakistan increased its influence in Bangladesh. 

General Ahmed, who did his schooling at the Pakistan Air Force College in Sargoda, Pakistan (it is a boarding school), maintained strong links with Pakistan. He also served as Bangladesh’s defence attaché to Pakistan, and it was during that time that he developed close links with the ISI. 

During this period, the ISI tried but did not meet with its earlier success in fomenting trouble in North East India. But it did succeed in spawning Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh through radical clerics it trained and financed. 

Once Hasina returned to power in January 2009, Pakistan and its ISI were booted out unceremoniously once again from Bangladesh. 

But under Yunus, who harbours deep-seated animosity towards India, Pakistan and its ISI are back in the game in Bangladesh. 

What This Means For India

Security experts say that while the ABT and HuT cadres are being trained with the objective of pushing them into India, the intention behind training the Rohingyas seems to be similar. 

“The Rohingyas who are being trained in Bandarban are not members of or affiliated in any way to the Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA) or the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the two groups which are active in Myanmar and fighting the Arakan Army and even, at times, the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military forces).

"The trainees also have no links with the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (a notorious mercenary force that’s helping the Tatmadaw fight the Arakan Army). So it is quite unlikely that they are being trained to fight the Arakan Army. In all probability, those Rohingya refugees are being trained to infiltrate into India and carry out subversive activities or even attack Indian security establishments,” a security expert who had been associated with the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, a leading think-tank in that country, told Swarajya. 

A senior functionary of the Malaysia-based ASEAN Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ASEAN-ISIS) agreed with this assessment. 

“If the reports (of the Rohingya refugees being trained by Pakistan) are true, then it is quite probable that they are not being trained for fighting in Myanmar. If that was the intention, cadres of the ARA or ARSA would have been trained and not raw recruits from amongst refugees,” said the ASEAN-ISIS functionary, who did not want to be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic. 

This means that Rohingya refugees are being trained for carrying out operations in India after pushing them through the Indo-Bangladesh border. 

Though the area where the Rohingyas are being trained lies in south-eastern Bangladesh close to Myanmar, both Tripura and Mizoram are not far away. 

Mizoram — and the Indo-Bangladesh border along that state is also extremely porous — is just about 60 km to the east of Bandarban, while the border with India in Tripura is about 145 km north. The Indo-Bangladesh border in Tripura is also porous and unfenced in many stretches. 

All this means that a number of well-trained and well-armed cadres of two Islamic terror groups as well as radical Rohingyas will be ready to enter India through many stretches of the border with Mizoram, Tripura, and Meghalaya, and even perhaps Assam and Bengal, six months from now. 

Six months is, according to counter-insurgency experts, the minimum period of training. That means a real danger will be lurking in North East and East India’s doorsteps by the middle of next year.