Amid India-Pakistan tensions, ex-Bangladesh general stirs row with invasion call

The recent plea by a retired Bangladeshi army officer for combative action against India has ignited severe diplomatic interest at a time of already strained ties between the two countries.

Major General (Retd) ALM Fazlur Rahman, who is the ex-head of Bangladesh Rifles and the present chairman of the National Independent Commission of Inquiry, advocated in a Facebook posting that Bangladesh should “invade and occupy” India’s seven northeastern states if New Delhi attacked Pakistan, reported HT.

A former head of the Bangladesh Rifles (now Border Guard Bangladesh), considered close to Bangladesh’s chief advisor Muhammad Yunus, went further to call for starting talks with China on a combined military deal to aid such an action.

Rahman’s comments are made in the aftermath of a terror strike at Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam area, in which 26 people were killed. His utterances have drawn severe criticism on the grounds of being provocative and destabilising in nature.

These remarks are part of a wider shift in Bangladesh’s foreign policy by the interim government headed by chief adviser Muhammad Yunus.

In a recent trip to China, Yunus called India’s northeastern states “landlocked” and presented Bangladesh as the “only guardian of the ocean” for the region, setting the stage for Chinese economic expansion via Bangladesh.

Indian officials have raised eyebrows over these developments. Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar reiterated India’s focus on increasing connectivity in its northeastern region and touted it as a centre for the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).