At least three divisions of the Bangladesh Army will be involved in providing supplies, logistics and other tactical support to a coalition of forces, including the Arakan Army and the Chin National Front (CNF), as part of a broader US plan to take on the Myanmar military junta in Rakhine State and beyond.
The 10th, 17th and 24th Divisions will likely be deployed as part of the plan, but these units will not play any military role and will only provide logistics and supplies support to a coalition of insurgent forces in the Rakhine State, top Bangladeshi security sources confirmed to Northeast News.
From a military-logistics perspective, the Bangladesh Army has already begun work on building a massive facility near Teknaf, from where there are plans to push supplies and other materials that the coalition forces will use as part of a US-backed proxy war against the Myanmar military junta which now remains in effective control of only three townships in the Rakhine State.
This apart, expansion of the Cox’s Bazar airport is in its final stages and, as Bangladeshi security sources revealed, would be developed into a drone base for operating Turkish unmanned aerial vehicles that will play a key role in the impending conflict in the Rakhine State.
Meanwhile, even as key State Department officials began arriving in Dhaka beginning today, the Bangladesh Army has taken to extreme secrecy to facilitate the entry of representatives of the Arakan Army and the Chin National Front (CNF) to chalk out a cohesive strategy in the Rakhine State and beyond.
The Arakan Army and CNF representatives have been housed in a safe house. They are expected to have clandestine meetings with the three US officials, including Susan Stevenson, who is the American charge d’affaires in Naypidaw, and two Assistant Secretaries of State for South and Central Asia and East and East Asia.
The broad strategy is to develop a military plan in which the Bangladesh Army will play an important role.
The supply base near Teknaf will provide all non-lethal supplies such as rations. On the other hand, efforts are being made, as part of a strategy developed by Bangladesh’s newly appointed National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman to identify and use an “aid corridor”.
In the event of some military success in the Rakhine State, the aid corridor will likely be used a channel for the return of about 80,000 Rohingya to their homes in Buthidaung and Maungdaw.
As a first step, the Mohammd Yunus-regime has begun working with a list of about 80,000 Rohingya who will be repatriated to the Rakhine State in the event of even partial military success.
The Bangladesh Army is also making efforts to rope in the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) which, till recently was ideologically and militarily opposed to the Arakan Army.
However, the ‘arrest’ last month of ARSA chief Ataullah in Narayanganj near Dhaka, along with nine other associates, indicates the Bangladesh Army is making efforts to convince the ARSA to join the broad coalition against the Myanmar military junta.
The negotiations to put together a broad coalition of forces ranged against the Myanmar military junta have been going on for quite some time now, with key senior Bangladesh Army officers, including those from the military operations directorate, being central to this effort. In this context, the US Army Pacific’s (USARAPC) Deputy Commanding General, Lieutenant General Joel ‘JB’ Vowell’s meeting with Gen Zaman in Dhaka last month is being considered to be significant.
