New Delhi:
Pakistan’s notorious spy agency ISI has secretly sent four top members to Dhaka, raising a red flag in New Delhi. Acknowledging the development, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday that India is keeping a very close watch on the developments in its immediate neighbourhood, especially ones that having a bearing on its national security. “Appropriate action” will be taken, if required, the foreign ministry said.
Pakistani spy agency ISI’s Director General of Analysis Maj Gen Shahid Amir Afsar and other senior officials are reportedly visiting Bangladesh at the moment. The visit comes close on the heels of a Bangladeshi military delegation visiting Rawalpindi and meeting the army, air force, and navy chiefs.
“We keep an eye on all activities around the country and in the region, as well as all activities affecting our national security, and the government will take appropriate steps,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to a question on fast-growing military engagement between Bangladesh and Pakistan.
ISI OFFICIALS IN DHAKA
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, less than a week after a Bangladeshi military delegation toured Pakistan, meeting all three service chiefs, Rawalpindi has sent four senior officers, including a two-star General of the ISI to Dhaka. The report, which attributes the development to unnamed sources familiar with the matter, states that Major General Shahid Amir Afsar, who is the Director General of Analysis in the ISI, and has served as Pakistan’s defence attache in Beijing, is part of the delegation.
The six-member Bangladeshi delegation which visited Rawalpindi – the town where Pakistan’s military headquarters is based – was led by Lt. Gen. SM Kamrul Hasan, the Principal Staff Officer of the Bangladesh Armed Forces Division. Pakistan Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir reportedly met them for extensive talks. The Bangladeshi delegation stayed in Pakistan between January 13 and January 18.
Photo Credit: YouTube / ISPR Official
Just three days later – on January 21, Rawalpindi secretly dispatched a senior delegation to Dhaka. This was the first time in nearly two decades that the ISI officially went to Bangladesh. A senior official from Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence or DGFI received them at the airport upon their arrival aboard an Emirates Airlines flight routed via Dubai.
The ISI team is being given a detailed tour of several military establishments in Bangladesh and is reportedly being informed about Dhaka’s military capabilities and preparedness.
In the midst of these visits by either side, the Pakistan Army’s media wing – the Inter-Services Public Relations or ISPR released a statement, in which it wrote that the meeting between Lt Gen SM Kamrul Hasan of Bangladesh and Pak Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir “underscored the importance of a stronger defence relationship, emphasising that the enduring partnership between the two brotherly nations must remain resilient against external influences.”
WHEN ISI ACTIVITY WAS STOPPED IN BANGLADESH
When Sheikh Hasina was the prime minister, all activities by Pakistan’s ISI was brought to a grinding halt due to its covert activities and political interference in Bangladesh, as well as its support for extremist elements. Under Sheikh Hasina’s leadership, several people were caught and prosecuted for their involvement and collusion with the ISI during the 1971 Bangladesh War.
But ever since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, the interim government under Muhammad Yunus has been accelerating military ties with Pakistan. During the 1990s, when terror camps mushroomed across Pakistan and were used on foreign soil as “an instrument of state policy”, as highlighted by India at the United Nations, the ISI even used Bangladeshi soil to fund militancy and insurgency in India’s northeastern states. This too was cracked down upon by Sheikh Hasina when she came to power the first time in 1996.