Pakistan's ISI using Bangladesh as hidden launchpad for cross-border terrorism: Report

New Delhi, Dec 11 Pakistan-backed terror outfits, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), are reactivating their networks inside India's northeastern states and West Bengal, relying heavily on safe transit routes and logistical hubs inside Bangladesh, a report highlighted on Thursday.

“Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is once again playing with fire - and dangerously close to Bangladesh’s borders. A massive madrasa near Dhaka, previously flagged by security agencies as a breeding ground for radicalisation, has abruptly shut down its entire operations, with senior members disappearing overnight,” Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, Editor of the Bangladeshi newspaper ‘Blitz’, wrote for Usanas Foundation thinktank.

“This shock closure came immediately after the arrest of several medical practitioners from Faridabad-based Al Falah University, as well as the detention of Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, the powerful chairman of the Al Falah group, in connection with the recent Delhi blast,” Choudhury added.

Citing law enforcement intelligence in Bangladesh, the report noted that the madrasa in Dhaka had long maintained “communication channels” with several religious charities and private donors linked to the Gulf region and Pakistan, but despite years of suspicion, no conclusive probe was launched.

“A madrasa does not vanish overnight unless someone is trying to erase the trail. The timing of this shutdown - coming immediately after the arrest of Al Falah University-linked individuals in India for the Delhi blast - is too precise to be dismissed as a coincidence. Someone tipped them off. Someone warned them that investigators were getting too close. That ‘someone’, many counterterrorism experts believe, is linked to the same ISI-backed ecosystem that has historically used Bangladesh as a playground for destabilisation,” it mentioned.

According to the report, since last year’s 'Jihadist Coup', international media have largely underestimated the extent to which ISI, along with its proxies, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), are attempting to rebuild operational routes through Bangladesh. These developments, it said, require a clear-eyed and uncompromising assessment of the situation.

The reports stressed that Bangladesh cannot permit the ISI to turn its territory into a covert launchpad for cross-border terrorism.

“If it happens once, it will happen again. If one madrasa can be used, more will follow. If one militant team enters quietly, others will arrive with greater sophistication and deeper alliances. This is why the madrasa shutdown must be treated as a national security emergency - not a minor curiosity,” it emphasised.

Bangladesh’s political establishment, the report said, must shed its tendency to downplay clear warning signs.

“ISI thrives where governments hesitate. It flourishes where bureaucracy fears confrontation. And it embeds itself wherever it senses political distraction,” it noted.

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