In a move that will raise the Indian security establishment’s hackles, a four-member team of senior officers from Pakistan’s Army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which is in Dhaka since January 21, on Thursday left for a secret visit to Bangladesh’s Rangpur district which is close to India’s ‘Chicken Neck’.
The ‘Chicken’s Neck’ is a narrow sliver of land that separates India’s northeast with other states in the west of the country. As the crow flies, the distance between Rangpur district in Bangladesh to Siliguri, a militarily vital area for the Indian armed forces, is about 130 kms.
Top Bangladesh security officials disclosed that the Pakistani officers are in Bangladesh following an invitation extended to that country’s Army and ISI by the Principal Staff Officer (PSO) in the Armed Forces Division, Lieutenant General S M Kamr-ul-Hassan, during his Islamabad visit early last week.
The Pakistani guests will be taken by a Bangladesh Army helicopter to Rangpur before they “likely” head for the sensitive Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), sources in Dhaka said, adding that the “series of events since last week will certainly cause consternation in New Delhi” and “may cause serious tensions between India and Bangladesh in the days to come”.
The visiting Pakistani team comprises ISI chief Lt Gen Muhammad Asim Malik, Maj Gen Shahid Amir Afsar, Maj Gen Alam Amir Awan and Muhammad Usman Zatif.
Lt Gen Kamr-ul-Hassan’s visit to Islamabad, followed by the Pakistani Army officers’ visit to Bangladesh – the team will return to Islamabad on January 24 – comes about two weeks after Indian Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi said in a televised address that the Indian armed forces maintained strong relations with the Bangladesh Army.
While the same sentiments were earlier expressed by Bangladesh Army chief General Waqer-uz-Zaman, Gen Kamr-ul-Hassan’s Pakistan visit is now being read by political analysts in Dhaka as having the full backing of the Mohammad Yunus-led interim government.
Just days before Gen Kamr-ul-Hassan’s visit to a once ‘enemy’ country, Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs advisor Touhid Hossain’s China visit was focused on building strong economic and financial ties with Beijing.
In this context, sources said that Hossain’s visit was also aimed at laying the groundwork for a likely visit by Yunus to China in the summer of 2025.
“The rather rapid Bangladeshi and Pakistani army officers’ visits at this time is rather surprising. It indicates a hurried move to achieve a military-security objective within a short period of time. However, there is no knowing what the Indian response to these back-to-back meetings and their likely objectives on the ground (in Bangladesh) will have in the coming weeks and months,” a retired Bangladeshi general said, preferring anonymity.
During their Pakistan visit, the Bangladeshi Army officers met Defence Secretary Lt Gen (retd) Muhammad Ali, Chief of Army Staff Gen Asim Munir, ISI Chief Lt Gen Asim Malik and Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza, among others.
ALSO READ: Bangladesh EC to follow government timeline for general elections
The meetings were focused on expanding Bangladesh-Pakistan defence collaboration, the evolving security dynamics in the region and exploring further “avenues for enhancing bilateral military cooperation” between the two “brotherly nations”.
