Less than two weeks after India’s Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) revoked the security clearance of Turkish Aviation company Celebi Airport Services, which operated in nine Indian airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, sources suggest the Centre is now keeping a watch on certain Turkish NGOs working from Bangladesh, which may pose a national security threat to India.
UNDER WATCH
A radical Islamist organisation, ‘Saltanat-e-Bangla’, has been in focus of late after it prominently exhibited what it called ‘Greater Bangladesh’, which not just consists of today’s Bangladesh but the entire Arakan land of Myanmar, a vast section of Northeast that it calls ‘Kamrup district’ and even Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha. Even the Rohingyas or Arakans envision a greater Arakan land which includes parts of Northeast. However, this is the first time mainland Indian states are also being laid claim to.
Government sources say NGOs aligning with Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi or Justice and Development Party are behind the movement. Government sources reveal they have reason to believe a particular Turkish NGO is working against India’s interest in Bangladesh. News18 has learnt the NGO is IHH or İnsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri ve İnsani Yardım Vakfı, which translates from Turkish to Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief in English.
This Turkish NGO with ties to the ruling AKP has been active in Bangladesh since the 1990s, even during Sheikh Hasina’s term, and has been working closely among the vast Rohingya population that the country has given refuge to.
Government sources suspect the NGO could have used its access to radicalise Rohingyas in Bangladesh in the past. NGO Monitor, an NGO watchdog notes, “IHH is a member of the Union of the Good, an umbrella of 50+ Islamic organisations, which was designated by the US government as an organization created by Hamas leadership to transfer funds to the terrorist organization."
GOVT SENDING SIGNALS
On Saturday, ‘Turkish Century’—a self-declared, Turkey-based Muslim think tank—posted the same photo that ‘Saltanat-e-Bangla’ has plastered across universities and places of discussion in Dhaka—a map of what ‘Saltanat-e-Bangla’ calls ‘Greater Bangladesh’. The Turkish Century tweeted with a line: “It’s time to make Bangladesh great again", borrowing the phrase of Donald Trump’s MAGA. Interestingly, the think tank had three nation emojis representing Bangladesh, Turkey and Pakistan, making the axis obvious.
Kanchan Gupta, senior advisor to the ministry of information and broadcasting tweeted, “Turkish Century a ‘Muslim think-tank focusing on the economy, defence and geopolitics of Türkiye and its region, is propagating the ‘Erdogan Line’ on India’s East and North-East." He added how terror organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir and Islamist-backed Yunus Regime in Bangladesh are a “willing collaborator" in this “evil smash-and-grab project."
Interestingly, soon after Gupta posted the tweet, the think tank’s website—which was earlier visible—has vanished and says it is “under repair". The name of the think tank is also derived from the strategic vision articulated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, outlining Turkey’s long-term objectives for the 21st century, aiming to establish it as a major global power by 2071.
As Gupta warned about the grand plan of a possible demographic shift in bordering states by what he calls “flooding these areas with illegal Muslim immigrants to create a ‘lebensraum’ or living space for Bangladeshi Muslims", there are more voices that have emerged.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, chief minister of Assam—one of the states projected in the map of ‘Greater Bangladesh’—issued a counter threat on Sunday.
Without naming any country, Sarma warned that before threatening India about the strategically crucial ‘Chicken’s Neck’, Bangladesh and its backers must keep in mind the 80km North Bangladesh Corridor from Dakhin Dinajpur to South West Garo Hills and 28km Chittagong Corridor from south Tripura till the Bay of Bengal.
“This corridor, smaller than India’s Chicken’s Neck, is the only link between Bangladesh’s economic capital and political capital," said Sarma.
Sources suggest a chief minister would not have resorted to such “geopolitical bravado" without a political green signal. Having taken care of its western border, India now seems to be focusing on its eastern problem.
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