Pakistan has offered Nuclear Technology to Bangladesh
New York: Rupee News. May 22, 2008:-However according to reports from the Indian intelligence agency officers, there is more in the air then just Nuclear Technology on the table for Bangladesh. Apparently both countries have been discussing a confederation. This was reported by a respectable Indian news agency called Sify news.
SInce 1971 when Pakistan was forcibly partitioned as a result of an international conspiracy, Indian intervention and genuine complaints about discrimination, both countries have been involved with each other. Like most South Asian marriages, there never seems to be a final divorce. The Bangladeshi body politic is divided into three main policies.
1) One section of Bangladesh wants to be a secular country. This was the force led by the Shaikh Mujibur Rehman’s Awami League. Bengali nationalism was the main impetus for this movement. Shaikh Mujibur Rehman was very pro-Indian and has close cadre of Awai Leaguers represented Indian interests. However after 1971 the Bengali nationalism was thwarted by the India attitude and the failure of Bengali nationalism to transcend religious dogma. Bangladesh– a land for the Bengalis could not convince the Hindu Bengalis of Calcutta to join the land of the Bengalis. This was a rude awakening for most Bengalis who had hoped to create a sonar Bengal which included Indian Bengal as well as Assam and Bihar in one great country.
2) The Jamaat e Islamiled religious parties had fallen into disrepute in 1971 for supporting a unified Pakistan. However, after the failure of secularism to solve the problems of Bangaldesh, The JEI (as it is known in Bangladesh) has now a very powerful party in Bangladesh. The JEI represents Islamic theocratic parties and support the Islamic ummah. In supporting Muslims, the JEI also support Pakistan.
3) The Bangladesh National Party, the BNP is a party which came to power as a result of opposition to the real of perceived sellout of Bangladesh to India by the Awami League. General Irshad lead a coup against Shiakh Mujibur Rehman and eliminated the entire family of the Shaikh. Only those children survived that were not in the country at the time.
When the new elections are held the BMP-JEI coalition is expected to win hands down. When and if that happens, Pakistan could establish a base an Air Force in Bangladesh and give Bangladesh a stake in Gwader and links to the Central Asian states as well as direct access to China.
This is the joint history. We can hang together or hang separately.
http://rupeenews.com/2008/05/28/greater-bangladesh-is-inevitable/
http://rupeenews.com/2008/05/21/nuclear-technology-pakistan-helping-bangladesh/
http://rupeenews.com/2008/04/20/bangladesh-grandsons-can-joy-mujib-defeat-tarique-zia/
Bangladeshi parties wanted a confederation with Pakistan.
In an article titled “What Dhaka needs to learn”, the seasoned Indian diplomat Bhaskar Roy asserts and vocalises the growing pro-Pakistani feeling in Bangladesh. What started as whispers has now become a cacophony. The press is full of stories of the rising tide of fundamentalism in Bangladesh. This rising tide of “fundamentalism” actually has pro-Pakistani sentiments at its core.
Bangladeshis have rejected the Mujib secularism which transformed Muslim Bengal into an Indian colony, and the younger generation is is increasingly becoming conservative–and according to some “extremist.” Mujib created the country in the name of Bengali nationalism, but it failed to attract the Hindu Bengalis to a “Bengali secular state”. Mujib has also harped upon the lack of democracy and Bengali rights in a united Pakistan. In Bangladesh, he created a one party state, decimated the opposition and tried to lead Bangladesh as an Omnipotent dictator. There was widespread discontent with Mujib and his philosophies.
The 8 year decade long rule of the Jamaat e Islami (JEI) and the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) inculcated a spirit of nostalgia for a greater Muslim nation in South Asia. That nation would be a nuclear power with missiles and could strengthen the movements in Northeast India, so that the Muslim majority areas of Assam and Bihar could also join the Muslim nation.
Indian military Generals and politicians have gone hoarse with charging the Pakistani ISIwith covert actions, in alliance with Bangladeshi forces. These operations in the seven sister states of Northeast are so successful that many in India have given up on controlling the seven states. In effect the Northeast India is pretty much independent, without supervision from the Delhi.
After 1971, the anti-Indian, and sometimes pro-Pakistani elements within Bangladesh eliminated Shaikh Mujib ur Rehman and got rid of all his progeny…with only one survivor left, Shaikh Hasina Mujib.
After a series of coups Khondkar Mushtaq emerged on the scene in Dhaka for a brief period of time. He publicly announced a confederation with Pakistan. However Khondkar reign was short lived, and before Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Khondkar Mushtaq could consolidate the gains, the pro Indian forces had once again pulled the plug on the confederation with Pakistan. Stanley Wolpert in his book “Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan” alleges that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had engineered the coup of Khondkar Mushtaq. It is never mentioned in news stories or history books today, but the news archives of that era will divulge the truth to those who are willing to scrutinize the headlines of major Pakistani newspapers.
Khaleda Zia of the BNP and wife of a former Pakistani trained general was openly anti-India and pro-Pakistani. The alliance nurtured the questioning of the reasons for the creation of Bangladesh, and the JEI openly proposed the 1940 resolution which confederates Muslim Bengal with other Muslim majority areas of South Asia.
Today the West Pakistani trained General Moen is in power and has extensive contacts with the Pakistani government and the military. He cancelled a trip to India in favor of Pakistan, and understands that without the approval of China-Arabia-Pakistan nexus, the powerbase in Bangladesh would be small.
The JEI and the BNP won the last election with a razor thin majority but the election was not allowed to stand, and disputed by the Indian-Awami League alliance. They disrupted the JEI-BNP prolonged rule and are reluctant to hold new elections, because the fear that the JEI and the BNP will sweep the polls and once again announce a confederation with Pakistan. It is inevitable!
It would be like Bangladesh rejoining Pakistan, it would be Muslim majority areas of South Asian re-negotiating a contract to live together and gain strength.
A joint Bengal-Pakistan would be the largest Muslim state, nuclear powered which would become a permanent member of the Security Council and ask Afghanistan, Bihar, and Assam to join the new country.
“aik ho Muslim haram kee pasbani keh leyeh”
What Dhaka needs to learn by Bhaskar Roy
Bhaskar Roy, who retired recently as a senior government official with decades of national and international experience, is an expert on international relations and Indian strategic interests. In this exclusive column for Sify.com, he says, strategic alliances between countries of South Asia would be a disaster for the region, as also for SAARC.
Bangladesh Army Chief Gen. Moeen U Ahmed, who arrived in New Delhi on February 24 for a weeklong visit, will have a lot to discuss with the Indian leaders. He is scheduled to meet the top Indian leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Gen. Moeen’s last scheduled visit to India a year ago was aborted at the last moment. The cancellation or, in polite diplomatic term, postponement of the visit was attributed to important domestic pre-occupation. Soon after, however, he visited Pakistan. Obviously, there were strong powers within the system created by the erstwhile BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) government that came in the way of the General’s India visit.
The BNP-JEImain coalition of the four-party alliance government in Bangladesh had basically created an anti-India sub-structure in the country. This was not new, having started from as early as Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s assassination in August 1975. The BNP-JEI government from 2001-2006 only consolidated the process. Even Awami League Chairperson and elder daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman began to believe that without the blessings of Pakistan, and Pakistan’s supporters like China and Saudi Arabia, she would not be able to return to power. The cause of liberation of Bangladesh began to be questioned in a deliberate strategy.
But there were also forces, albeit small, determined to keep Bangladesh’s independence alive. Another saving aspect, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman is still revered by a vast majority as the father of the nation, and his ideals of independence and secularism do still remain at the grassroots.
Pakistan wanted to avenge 1971. It found forces in Bangladesh who, at least, wanted an alliance with Pakistan. These forces had their own reasons, and the BNP-JEI government was reportedly working towards a confederate relationship with Pakistan. The JEI worked with the Pak occupation army in East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh) against independence. Begum Khaleda Zia, Chairperson of the BNP and widow of BNP founder and the first openly anti-India President of Bangladesh, Gen. Zia-ur-Rehman, is a product of the Pak military cantonment.
Strategic alliances between countries of South Asia would be a disaster for the region, as also for the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC). The SAARC has been sputtering for this reason. Pakistan has been stone-walling a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India for political and strategic reasons as perceived by Islamabad. Bangladesh followed in Pakistan’s footsteps. Recently, the Director General of Bangladesh Foreign Ministry, Dr. Rashid, told a seminar in Dhaka that an agreement with India will make Bangladesh captive with Indian businessmen. Bangladeshi businessmen at the seminar wanted a protected market. Only the World Bank representative held a contrary view.
Similarly, expansion of SAARC to bring in outside powers to balance or as counter a measure of a SAARC member could only assist in the fragmentation of this regional organisation. Unfortunately, this has already started.
Bangladesh is the main proponent of SAARC and hosted the inaugural SAARC summit in 1984. Dhaka may, therefore, shoulder this onerous responsibility to give the lead to bring the core SAARC members into a truly sharing family. Strategic alliance means co-operation against a third party. Bringing in an outside power is disaster for all concerned.
Gen. Moeen is not uninitiated to all these issues. In fact, if his track record since January 11, 2007, suggests he is acutely aware of the imbalances Bangladesh government got itself trapped into by pursuing both external and internal policies that defied a sane vision for the young country.
Obviously, Gen. Moeenhad to step through a minefield to attain the position and power that he wields today. But careful as he is, he does not wield these powers widely. Moeen gradually consolidated his position by promoting himself as a full general. He ensured that the Chiefs of the other two services were similarly promoted. The second level officers received up-gradation. These have been instituted. Those he found as obstructionists were sidelined quietly but without disgrace. A few had to be retired.
Gen. Moeen visit to India now suggests he has been able to significantly impose his position in the country. He apparently enjoys an understanding with the Chief Advisor (Interim Prime Minister) Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed of the Caretaker Government.
The reshuffle of the Advisors (Interim Cabinet Ministers) this January apparently succeeded in easing out some Advisors committed to the BNP-JEI policies. That, of course, does not mean that the Moeen-Fakhruddin team are totally out of the woods. The Aegean Stable of Dhaka would need much more cleansing, if they can really be cleaned at all to satisfaction, which seems unrealistic at the moment. .
In the army backed-caretaker government, the army remains the mainstay. And it can be said that Gen. Moeen in the architect.
Gen. Moeen did not take part in the 1971 liberation war because he was in West Pakistan. Bengali officers and soldiers were disarmed by the West Pakistan army and garrisoned. He served as Bangladesh’s Military Advisor in its High Commission in Islamabad, and is a course mate of senior Pakistani Generals. But the perception that he is a Pak acolyte apparently proved incorrect. Subsequent developments suggest Moeen is pursuing a policy in Bangladesh’s national interest – that is, balance and co-operation without machinations.
A nation’s foreign policy is generally dictated by internal political balance and ideological disposition. In Bangladesh, another dimension has been added in recent years. What kind of a political dispensation can allow unbridled corruption among politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats and military officers? The army-backed caretaker government, or at least elements among it, is trying to break this vicious nexus. But they also have their drawbacks in legal acumen and political prejudices.
A challenge taken up by the army-backed caretaker government is to send the leaders of the two main political parties, Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, into political oblivion. One can hardly deny the fact both these leaders presided over the two most corrupt governments in the country. The Khaleda Zia led government from 2001-2006 not only ruined the country financially, but directly or indirectly encouraged Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism for political interests.
The caretaker powers should have realised that these two women carry the nationalist halo of the respective husband and father. They could have been left alone and restricted through rooting out their corruption instruments. This would have been a more doable task.
But the effort to root out corruption appears to have got entangled in a mess. The anti-corruption net was cast too wide, to even wipe out small businesses. The authorities should have realised that no country is, or can be, totally free of corruption.
Also, too many politicians are languishing in custody with charges filed against them but no conviction in sight. This is now giving the authorities a bad name including of inefficiency, personal vendetta and inability to rise above embedded forces backing their corrupt mentors.
The army-backed government is also being charged with economic inefficiency. According to official figures, foreign and domestic investment proposals dipped 55 per cent between January and November 2007, compared to the previous corresponding period. The reason apparently was instability in the country, but the authorities have to take the blame. Worst has been rise in inflation, especially food prices. This has severely affected the common man, and the crux lies here.
Significantly, the Bangladesh chapter of “Transparency International” has also reported that corruption has not declined, raising serious questions about the efforts taken so far to weed it out.
The issue of terrorism directly affects both Bangladesh and India. The army-backed caretaker government has made some progress, but not enough. They succeeded in executing top six leaders of the Jamat-ul-Islam, Bangladesh (JMB). But the organisation has not been eliminated. Arrests are being made periodically, but conviction delayed.
Most importantly, they have collected hard evidence on BNP ex-Ministers, MPs and leaders involved with the JMB. Although some of them are in custody, trials continue to either drag or are postponed. Obviously, there are reasons for this state of affairs.
The most high profile case of terrorism in the country, the assassination attempt on Sheikh Hasina on August 21, 2004 is in court. The main culprit, Mufti Hannan, Commander of the Harkat-ul-Jihad Al-Islami, Bangladesh or HUJI (BD) is in custody. Hannan’s confessions and other evidence clearly established BNP’s conspiracy in the attack on Hasina’s life. This may be the real reason why this case is not moving towards a conclusion.
Read all Bhaskar Roy columns here
Gen. Moeen would be well advised to keep in consideration the rise in Islamic terrorism in Bangladesh, especially of Pakistan’s ISI backed terrorist organizations. The HUJI is of the special concern to India. The majority of terrorist incidents in India had a HUJI (BD) connection, and New Delhi is yet to see any serious attempts by the Bangladeshi government to address these problems.
A former senior Bangladesh army officer has recently said that the HUJI (BD) was still active in the country, and their bases in the Chittagong Hill Tract area and Cox’s Bazar are functioning.
Further, there are issues related to camps or sanctuaries of Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs) in Bangladesh territory. The Chairman of the ULFA, Anup Chetia, remains in a Bangladesh jail under a cosy arrangement between the country’s intelligence agencies and the ULFA. This has prevented Chetia’s extradition to India. The ULFA Central Command is located in Dhaka, the ULFA Commander-in-Chief lives in Dhaka, and the organization runs several business enterprises in Bangladesh.
The ISI is actively involved with the ULFA in Bangladesh. A recent confession by a captured ULFA leader claimed an ISI-ULFA plan to hijack an Indian aircraft like the hijack of IC-814 from Nepal in 2000. These are unfriendly, if not outright hostile acts against India. But these can be resolved by a friendly government in Dhaka.
Gen. Moeen should be prepared to answer some of these questions.
India has demonstrated its friendship with Bangladesh, especially in the aftermath of the Sidr cyclone. Some sections, especially the JEI and sections of the BNP, tried to discredit India’s assistance in various ways. But this did not work.
Interestingly, the people in sub-continental countries around India are slowly beginning to realise that India is not a threat but a stable influence and presence. This has happened most recently in Pakistan, where the people refused to bite President Musharraf’s anti-India campaign on the eve of the elections.
There is a lot to be done in the Indo-Bangladesh relations. It is for Dhaka to grab the opportunity. Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed should return from India as an encouraged leader of his country.
The views expressed in the article are the author’s and not of Sify.com.
Pakistan offers to share N-technology with Bangladesh 20 May 2008, 1846 hrs IST,PTI
DHAKA: Pakistan has offered to help Bangladesh with the latter’s proposed first nuclear power reactor, which was conceived when they were a single country, but never took off.
Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh Alamgir Babar on Monday said that his country was ready to share nuclear technology for civilian purposes to help tackle the massive energy crisis.
Babar said Pakistan’s offer was “on the table” and it was for Bangladesh to decide whether the country wanted to discuss it, the Daily Star newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Foreign Adviser Iftekhar A Chowdhury has already discussed nuclear energy cooperation with Russia and China after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently cleared Bangladesh to use nuclear power for civilian use. Russians showed willingness to help during Chowdhury’s Moscow visit last month.
“We have a programme for nuclear energy. We are going ahead with that. It is up to Bangladesh to decide what they want,” Babar told reporters.
He said discussions over the matter could take place within the parameters of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) even though Pakistan is not a part of it. Bangladesh is a signatory to NPT.
Pakistan is the latest to make such an offer that would be viewed with interest by the strategic community.
Its bid to strike a civilian nuclear technology agreement has been rejected by the US, which has worked out a deal with India for the same. Pakistan’s traditional military ally China has also not obliged, being governed by the IAEA and the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers’ Group. Bangladesh too has sought help from China.
The project was conceived during the Ayub Khan era in 1961 to be located at Rooppur in northern Bangladesh’s Pabna district.
Several countries including the US, Britain, France and Canada had shown interest in the project when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan. And after its independence, India too seemed keen. But the project, however, did not materialise.
Bangladesh has revived the idea of the project it in the last two years since India and the US got into discussions over a nuclear deal, realising the need for meeting its growing energy needs.
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