A three-member team of senior officers of Bangladesh’s National Security Intelligence (NSI) left for the UK yesterday to meet British intelligence officials even as Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman on Tuesday held a crucial meeting with several formation commanders, including General Officers Commanding and those heading independent brigades.
By all accounts, the Bangladesh Army top brass has begun making preparations for their ‘involvement’ in a long-term operation to provide logistics and supplies support to the Arakan Army’s military thrust against the Myanmar military junta forces lodged in three key townships, including Sittwe, Kyaukphyu and Manaung in Rakhine State.
Informed Bangladeshi security service sources revealed that a Bangladesh Border Guards Sector Commander (in a particular area under the Army’s 10th Division) has been tasked to be the main coordinator for providing supplies to the Arakan Army.
Indeed, the sources said, that initial supplies have already begun to go across the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in “sealed containers” that BGB soldiers are forbidden to check.
NSI chief Major General Abu Mohammad Sarwar Farid, along with the agency’s Director Muhammad Azharul Islam and Deputy Director Asif Iqbal, on April 28 took an Emirates flight (No. EK-582) to London (via Dubai) for an “official” meeting following an “invitation from the UK Government”, documents accessed by Northeast News show.
This is being considered a crucial meeting as it will be with British external intelligence officers.
One of the two officers subordinate to Maj Gen Farid is said to have previously undergone training with MI6, the British external intelligence agency otherwise known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).
The team led by Maj Gen Farid will be in the UK till May 1.
The NSI officers’ visit to the UK comes days after Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) Director General Major General Jahangir Alam and Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Syed Anwar Mahmud met CIA officers in the US.
However, top Bangladesh government sources disclosed that the meeting chaired by Gen Zaman at Army Headquarters is “crucial”, especially in the backdrop of Foreign Ministry Adviser Tauhid Hossain’s admission yesterday that the Mohammad Yunus-led interim authority had taken an in principle decision on a “humanitarian corridor” ostensibly for the return of Rohingya refugees who number close to 1.4 million. The meeting of the Bangladesh Army’s formation commanders would continue till April 30.
The meeting chaired by Gen Zaman was attended by Lieutenant General Kamrul Hassan, the Principal Staff Officer in the Armed Forces Division, GOC ARTDOC (Army Training and Doctrine Command) Lt Gen Muhammad Mainur Rahman, all the GOCs, Military Secretary Maj Gen Mohammad Adil Chowdhury, Directorate General Medical Services DG Maj Gen Major General Quazi Rashid-Un-Nabi, the Army Aviation Group head, independent brigade commanders, commanders of the 24th and 34th Engineer Construction Brigades and the commander of the Para Commando Brigade.
A few hours before this meeting went underway, Brigadier General Mohammad Imran Yosuf Chowdhury, the Defence Attache at the Pakistan Embassy in Dhaka had a one-on-one meeting with Lt Gen Kamrul Hassan.
The two-day senior officers’ conference is being held at a time when Bangladesh finds itself in the middle of a US-backed operation aimed providing logistical and supplies support to the Arakan Army in a prolonged proxy military move targeted against the Myanmar military junta.
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One of the key moves made by the Bangladesh Army is to identify a particular area in Silkhali (30 kms north of Teknaf) where it intends to set up a base that will supply provisions to the Arakan Army.
While three key US State Department officials were recently in Dhaka to confabulate with key Bangladeshi stakeholders, including National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman, Foreign Ministry Adviser Tauhid Hossain and some Army generals, several other American officials, said to be around 15, remain in Bangladesh.
They have toured sensitive border regions extending from the Chittagong Hill Tracts to Teknaf.
