Pakistan’s ISI trying to destabilize Bangladesh: Bangladesh Minister

Pakistan’s dreaded intelligence agency ISI is trying to destabilize Bangladesh by strengthening the roots of Islamic terrorism in Dhaka, Bangladeshi minister Hasan Ul-Inu has claimed.

As per a report in Bangladesh Live News, the minister said that besides the LeT, the ISI is trying to destabilize Bangladesh from the time Bangladesh became independent and these aspects cannot be ignored.

The ISI has been found supporting various Islamic terrorist groups, including the LeT, in the form of training, funds, and protection. Soon after the 2016 Dhaka attack, the Bangladesh government found in the investigations that the JMB terrorists had gone to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan to receive military training.

Though the attack was carried out by a home-grown Islamic terror group called Jamaat-ul Mujahideen, investigations revealed that the group was supported by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Bangladesh government found in the investigations that the JMB terrorists had gone to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan to receive military training with active support from LeT and ISI.

In 2012, Bangladesh authorities had nabbed Maulana Shabeer Ahmed, a Pakistan-based Rohingya operative who was working with Rohingya terrorists in Bangladesh on behalf of Jaish-e- Mohammed. A couple of years ago, the JMB had given a slogan of ‘turning Bangladesh into Taliban Afghanistan’. Now, the JMB has pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State. This could not have been possible without the help of Pakistan-based LeT, which has its terrorists active beyond the Indian subcontinent, says the Bangladesh Live News report.

The report further says that the inaction on the part of the Pakistan government has only bolstered the confidence of LeT leaders, who now want to target Bangladesh besides India.

In 2018, Indian agencies expressed concern over Pakistan using its high commission in Dhaka to conduct anti-India activities. Inputs indicated that the high commission in that city is the meeting point where plans to orchestrate terror attacks in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Reports said that the Pakistan ISI, under the guise of diplomats, are secretly meeting terror groups in Dhaka to organize terror attacks in Bangladesh and in India.

Many security experts have also said that the recent attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh was carried out by local Islamic militant groups which have been funded and supported by Pakistan and ISI.