Bangladesh’s Mohammad Yunus-led interim regime appears to have taken a risky course by selecting a Chinese aeronautics engineering company to “build” a hospital in Nilphamari district, in Rangpur Division, on the borders with India.
The Indian border district of Cooch Behar in West Bengal faces Nilphamari.
A November 7 Bangladesh Health Ministry document accessed by Northeast News says that the Chinese government has appointed the China Aerospace Planning and Design Group Co Ltd which “has expressed interest in conducting technical discussions/site visits to determine the land for the ‘Bangladesh-China Friendship General Hospital’ project.
The curious part of the Bangladesh government’s decision is that a hospital will be built by a company that is actually into aerospace planning and designing.
Deeper inquiries revealed that the China Aerospace Planning and Design Group Co Ltd is a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) which is centred around “aviation and capable of providing whole-value chain services to customers in many fields, from research and development to operation and from manufacturing to finance”.
The Bangladesh interim regime has done considerable planning before awarding the construction work to China Aerospace Planning and Design Group Co Ltd which the document described as the “contractor appointed by the Chinese government”.
“A technical team has been formed to provide necessary cooperation for the technical discussions/site visits” by a delegation from the China Aerospace Planning and Design Group Co Ltd “for determining the project land”, the Health Ministry document signed by a deputy secretary says.
What is even more intriguing is that Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry Adviser Touhid Hossein visited the project site on December 7.
The Chinese company will supposedly build a 1,000-bed hospital in Nilphamari.
Using strong language to “condemn” the BSF’s alleged “border killings”, Hossein said, “The Chicken’s Neck belongs to India, not us. We are not going to occupy India’s Chicken’s Neck…India has various relations with China. They might be worried about this. This is not our concern. I do not think that the relationship India and China have with us has any connection to this Chicken’s Neck”.
Bangladesh’s northern part, especially Rangpur Division, has come under the scanner of Indian Military Intelligence and security agencies.
On November 14, a three-member team of Military Intelligence officers led by Major General Kundan Kumar Singh visited Bangladesh and shared dossiers of “areas of concern” with the host Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman.
The Bangladesh Air Force and the Army Aviation Group have collaborated to build a huge modern hangar and other facilities at Lalmonirhat airbase (also in Rangpur Division).
While a new compound wall has come at nearby Thakurgaon airbase, the so-called hospital at Nilphamari, which will be constructed by a Chinese aerospace planning and design company, will raise the Indian defence and security establishments’ hackles.
Bangladesh security experts who did not wish to be identified apprehend that the hospital could be a “cover” for a facility that “might actually be engaged in developing military air assets”.
The Indian security establishment, sources in New Delhi said, “are keeping a close eye on what comes up at Nilphamari” which is close to Saidpur.
Even as the Indian MI officers were in Bangladesh, Gen Zaman and at least one lieutenant general went on an aerial (helicopter) tour some of the “areas of concern”, including Lalmonirhat, Thakurgaon, Nilphamari and Saidpur on November 16.
Besides, the presence of the Indian MI officers did not deter the Bangladeshi military establishment from continuing construction work on the hangar at Lalmonirhat and awarding the land for the so-called hospital project at Nilphamari.
Acting in response to the up-gradation of Lamonirhat airbase, the Indian defence establishment decided to establish three new Army bases at Chopra (in North Dinajpur, West Bengal), Kishanganj (in Bihar and close to the Chicken’s Neck or the Siliguri Corridor) and Bamuni in Dhubri district of Assam.
