The ongoing political turmoil in Bangladesh, which has seen the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, has escalated the threat of terrorism to India, according to intelligence sources.
While the protests appear to be spearheaded by students, reports indicate that organised violence, particularly targeting minority Hindus, is being planned by established terrorist groups.
Key among these is the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has reportedly allied with the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) to execute attacks in India’s northeastern states.
Intelligence suggests that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has played a pivotal role in supporting the regime change efforts in Bangladesh, particularly through backing Jamaat-e-Islami and other banned groups like ABT.
The collaboration between LeT and ABT dates back to 2022, when they set up operations in Bengal with the intent to launch assaults in India.
A specific incident in Tripura, involving reported damage to mosques, spurred LeT to forge this alliance, targeting predominantly Hindu areas in the region.
Intelligence from the same year indicated that between 50 and 100 ABT operatives were plotting to infiltrate Tripura, and several members of the group were apprehended in Assam.
The ABT, which was initially founded in 2007 as Jamaat ul-Muslimeen, struggled financially until re-emerging in 2013. After being banned in 2015, it rebranded as Ansar al-Islam, which was subsequently outlawed in 2017.
Since then, it has claimed to be the Bangladeshi arm of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), with a history of targeting progressive and secular figures.
As of now, nine major Islamic terrorist organizations are active in Bangladesh, including:
- Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT)
- Ansar al-Islam
- Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)
- Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B)
- Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB)
- Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)
- Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP)
- Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS)
- Islamic State (ISIS)
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, known for her close ties with New Delhi, previously took stringent actions against these terrorist outfits.
As protests continue, initially sparked by demands to abolish a 30% reservation in government jobs for the families of 1971 liberation war heroes, the rising violence has raised alarming questions about the true masterminds behind this chaos.
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