GUWAHATI, May 2: ALM Fazlur Rahman, a retired Bangladeshi major general and close aide of Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, has sparked a major controversy by suggesting that Bangladesh should invade and occupy all seven northeastern states of India if New Delhi retaliates against Pakistan following the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 people.
Rahman, who is currently the chairperson of the National Independent Investigation Commission and a former head of the Bangladesh Rifles (now Border Guard Bangladesh), made the explosive suggestion in a Bengali-language Facebook post. He also called for strategic cooperation with China to pursue the idea.
“If India attacks Pakistan, Bangladesh will have to occupy seven states of northeast India. In this regard, I feel it is necessary to start discussions on joint military arrangement with China,” Rahman wrote.
His comments have surfaced at a time when diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Dhaka are already tense, exacerbated by former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s asylum in India and India’s concerns over the reported targeting of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.
Tensions were further heightened when Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus made controversial remarks about India’s northeastern region during a visit to China in March. Yunus had stated, “The seven states of India, the eastern part of India, are called the seven sisters. They are a landlocked region of India. They have no way to reach out to the ocean.” He went on to describe Bangladesh as the “only guardian of the ocean” in the region and called this geographical position a “massive opportunity,” potentially as an extension of the Chinese economy.
These remarks were strongly condemned by leaders from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar appeared to indirectly address Yunus’s comments during the April foreign ministers’ meeting of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation). “Our northeastern region in particular is emerging as a connectivity hub for the BIMSTEC, with a myriad network of roads, railways, waterways, grids and pipelines,” Jaishankar said, adding that India is “aware of its special responsibility” in the context of regional cooperation under BIMSTEC.
In a further sign of deteriorating bilateral ties, India recently ended a nearly five-year-old arrangement allowing trans-shipment of Bangladeshi export cargo to third countries via Indian airports and ports. The decision, which came just days after Yunus’s controversial statements, was attributed to increasing congestion in cargo traffic.
