Terrorist Plot Involves Groups in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Myanmar

Faheem Haider

14 years ago

I’ve been following reports that three Bangladeshi men affiliated with Lashkar E Taiyeba and Harkatul Jihad al Islam have been implicated in a plot to attack the U.S. Embassy and Indian High Commission in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

This story just got a lot more interesting and puzzlingly complicated. Even though the piece is a a little confusing, because it throws temporal narrative up in the air, it is a must read. And for its reportage, The Daily Star newspaper should be commended. Find the article here.

Along with Bangladesh and Pakistan, India is now involved in this issue since it arrested 2 men trying to cross the border from Comilla. The men allegedly intended to lead 15 others to attack U.S and Indian interests on November 26th, the one year anniversary of the Mumbai attacks.

As Shariful Islam, for the Daily Star, writes:

“The LeT men — T Nasir and Sharfaraz from Indian state of Kerala — were held by the Indian intelligence officials soon after they crossed the Bibir Bazar border in Comilla on November 6, the sources add.”

“The two LeT leaders, believed to be members of the LeT suicide squad, were earlier hiding in the hilly areas in Chittagong for around one and a half months and trying to collect explosives from the Rohingya rebels for the attack.”

“Funds for launching the attacks on the US Embassy and Indian High Commission were being provided by LeT leaders in Pakistan, says an official of Detective Branch on the understanding of anonymity.

The sources say T Nasir, wanted in India for a number of terror attacks, is a suicide squad commando. He was supposed to lead the 15-member team formed with five LeT men from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan each.”

So now Myanmar is involved as well. Rohingya rebels, a Muslim minority who are persecuted in Myanmar and have grievances against successive governments in Bangladesh are now aligning with Bangladeshi and Pakistani Islamist organizations and terrorist groups. Terrorism has truly become a regional phenomenon. Every government in the Sub-Continent would do well to coordinate its strategies with those of its neighbors, though given the non-cooperative game that’s been playing out in the region, that’ll be next to impossible.

Nevertheless the U.S. government can no longer assume that organizations that employ terrorist tactics in South Asia are aligned solely along the porous North West Frontier Province border that separates Pakistan and Afghanistan, like the ridges on a marred coin separates its two disfigured faces.