"Hope Bangladesh Doesn't Become Safehouse Of Northeast Insurgents Again": Himanta Sarma

Himanta Biswa Sarma raised concerns Bangladesh may again become a safehouse of insurgents

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has raised concerns that Bangladesh may once again become a safehouse of insurgents from India’s northeast, following the violent ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Mr Sarma also raised concerns over attacks on minorities including Hindus who supported Ms Hasina’s Awami League in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, adding similar turmoil may arise in neighbouring Assam, Jharkhand and West Bengal after 2041 due to massive demographic changes in these states.

“We are concerned about the developments in Bangladesh. If the turmoil continues, people will try to enter India, so we must keep the borders secure,” Mr Sarma told reporters today.

“During Sheikh Hasina’s time, all northeast-based insurgent groups were driven out. So it is a concern for us, and we hope Bangladesh does not become a safehouse for northeast insurgents again,” the Assam Chief Minister said, adding he hopes India and Bangladesh will continue to cooperate on this matter.

Bangladesh’s security agencies in April had arrested a senior commander of a tribal insurgent group believed to have links with an Islamist terrorist organisation, days after the outfit looted state-owned banks and abducted a bank manager in the southeastern hills.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) had arrested Cheosim Bom, a key organiser and coordinator of the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF).

“What we are seeing in Bangladesh today, we may see it tomorrow in Assam, Bengal, Jharkhand in 2041. Everyday northeast and eastern India’s demography is changing. We are worried that at this rate, Hindus will become a minority here,” Mr Sarma said, echoing what his Manipur counterpart N Biren Singh said in the assembly two days ago over illegal immigration emerging to be the biggest concern.

The Manipur Chief Minister had said last week in the assembly that over 10,000 illegal immigrants have been detected in the ethnic violence-hit state in the last five years. This issue has become all the more important in Manipur ever since clashes began in May 2023 between the valley-dominant Meitei community and nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur.

Meghalaya, which shares a 445-km-long border with Bangladesh, has imposed a night curfew along the border.

In Bangladesh, the interim government led by Nobel-laureate Muhammad Yunus will take oath tomorrow, the nation’s army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said today. The Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer has asked for calm after weeks of violence in which at least 455 people were killed. “If we take the path of violence everything will be destroyed,” he added.

Ms Hasina, 76, who had been in power since 2009, resigned on Monday and left the country as hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Dhaka demanding she stand down. Monday’s events were the culmination of more than a month of unrest, which began as protests against a plan for quotas in government jobs but morphed into an anti-Hasina movement.