Dhaka, May 3 Tapped by Interim Government's Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus for a high-level role, Major General (Retd.) A L M Fazlur Rahman, a former Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Director General, has sparked diplomatic ripples with an incendiary social media post which suggests that Bangladesh should ally with China to seize India's northeastern states if India retaliates against Pakistan over the recent Pahalgam terror attack.
"If India attacks Pakistan, Bangladesh should occupy the seven states of Northeastern India. I think it is necessary to start discussions with China on a joint military arrangement in this regard," Rahman wrote.
Rahman, who has pro-Pakistan leanings and is connected to radical Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) party, is notoriously remembered in India as one of the key figures in the ghastly killing of 16 BSF jawans at Boraibari along the Assam-Meghalaya -Bangladesh tri-junction on April 18, 2001.
Rahman’s recent overtly political appointment by the Yunus-led interim administration as Chairman of the National Independent Commission probing the 2009 Bangladesh Rifles mutiny at Pilkhana in which 74 people, including military officers, were killed during a mutiny has stirred controversy.
His current position is equivalent to a judge of the Appellate Division of Bangladesh's Supreme Court. Rahman is a known 'anti-India' figure and has accused India of influencing affairs of Bangladesh.
The interim government has quickly moved to disown the remarks. Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Friday, firmly distancing the government from Rahman's comments.
"The comments do not reflect the position or policies of the government of Bangladesh, and as such, the government neither endorses nor supports such rhetoric in any form or manner," it said.
Fazlur Rahman's remarks are being seen as views of Yunus on his government’s ties with China. During his visit to China in March, Yunus pitched for "extension of the Chinese economy" and made the provocative remarks that with Northeast India being "landlocked," Dhaka is the "only guardian of the ocean for all this region".
Since Yunus took over in August 2024, as many as 140 garment factories have shut down, with more than one lakh people losing their jobs. The largest textile industrial park, BEXIMCO has also been shut down. About 62 per cent of the steel Industry in Chattogram is at risk of closure. Production of critical products like steel rods, cement and urea fertiliser are severely disrupted, pushing Bangladesh economy into a deep crisis.
Alarmingly, Bangladesh suffers the highest inflation rate of 9.35 per cent making matters worse. The political uncertainties created by Yunus's interim administration have deterred investment, stifled growth and constrained job creation in Bangladesh. There was a time when Bangladesh was emerging as one of the most promising economies in the world.
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