SINCE the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and leader of the ruling party, Awami League Sheikh Hasina Wajid came into power, India has been employing various tactics to entrap Bangladesh by manipulating her pro-Indian tilt to fulfil its strategic interests, especially against Pakistan. Thus, India has succeeded in establishing puppet regime in Bangladesh. In this regard, during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to New Delhi, India and Bangladesh on April 8 signed 22 agreements in the fields of defence cooperation, civil nuclear energy, among others, following bilateral talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart. Both the countries also signed a MoU through which India would extend a line of credit of $500 million to support BD’s defence-related procurements.
Bangladeshi newspapers have show un-easiness among the masses in Bangladesh regarding recently signed defence deal between India and Bangladesh. Opposition parties have also criticized the defence deal by saying that Hasina Wajid wants Bangladesh to become a colony of India. BNP’s secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has asked the government to disclose details of the defence deal likely to be signed between India and Bangladesh. However, the matter is not confined to Indo-Bangladesh defence deal, Prime Minister Hasina Wajid has also taken other steps which prove that her regime is India’s puppet. In this respect, Prime Minister Hasina Wajid has continuously been pursuing Indian directions by conducting anti-Pakistan campaign. Therefore, after passing of 42 years to the events of 1971, which resulted into the separation of East Pakistan—in connivance with the judiciary, she hurriedly executed her political opponent Abdul Qadir Mullah-leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) because of his loyalty to Pakistan. Afterwards, some other leaders of JI were also hanged.
Reviving old animosity, pro-government media of Bangladesh and that India also started highlighting issue of 195 Pakistan Army officers allegedly involved in killing of Bengalis in 1971 war. Although they were repatriated to Pakistan after tripartite agreement between Pakistan, India and Bangladesh in 1974, yet Prime Minister Hasina Wajid intended to file cases against them at International Crime Tribunal (ICT). The main purpose behind was to distort the image of Pakistan and its armed forces regarding alleged atrocities. Notably, in December, 2012, Prime Minister Hasina had refused to attend D-8 conference in Islamabad unless Pakistan tendered apology for the alleged genocide of Bengalis.
The dismemberment of Pakistan was aimed at creating a compliant country through Indian trained and financed terrorists (Mukti Bahini) who had killed thousands of Pakistanis in cold blooded activities. In this connection, while addressing a ceremony during his Bangladesh tour, Indian Prime Minister Modi openly stated on June 7, 2015 that Indian forces helped Mukti Bahini to turn East Pakistan into Bangladesh. He elaborated that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had played an active role in separating Bangladesh from Pakistan, and he had also come to Delhi in 1971 to participate in the Satyagraha Movement, launched by Jana Sangh as a volunteer to garner support for the Mukti Bahini members.
Regarding the so-called genocide of the Bengali people, a famous Bengali journalist Sarmila Bose authored a book, “Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War” after thorough investigation. Her book was published in 2011. While countering exaggerations of the Indian and Bengali journalists, Bose argues that the number of Bengalis killed in 1971 was not three million, but around 50,000, while Bengalis were equally involved in the bloodshed of Punjabis, Biharis, Pashtoons and Balochis.
In fact, with the support of India, for her second tenure, Sheikh Hasina won the elections 2014 in wake of bloodshed due to her dictatorial steps. In this regard, head of the BNP, Begum Khaleda Zia was leading the alliance of the opposition parties boycotted the general elections. Police besieged Begum Khaleda Zia in her office. In order to keep herself in power, Prime Minister Hasina amended the constitution for holding of elections under a non-party set up and the opposition accused her of manipulating the electoral process to establish one party state. The country’s largest religious party JI was also banned from taking part in the elections. It is notable that Hasina Wajid had already directed her staff to close the chapter of water and border conflicts with New Delhi. Besides, she has given transit trade facilities to India—a move which has been resisted by the Bangladeshi patriots for the past several decades. In this connection, a writer has rightly said, “Hasina Wajid again started Honey Moon Period of relationship with India.” It is mentionable that by ignoring public protests and strikes by students and Islamic parties due to her pro-Indian tilt, Prime Minister Hasina Wajid has given secular orientation to the country by purging the society from religious touch. She has issued instructions for the removal of some Islamic books from academic courses.
It is noteworthy that Pakistani businessmen motivated by business interests of both the countries, and driven by their deeply entrenched longings to revive old relations with Bangladeshi brethren, decided to invest their capital in Bangladesh. According to media reports, more than ten thousand Pakistanis invested billions of dollars in BD. But, it is misfortune that Bangladesh is rapidly moving towards chaos and uncertainty. Hence, Pakistani investors in that country are in state of fear because Hasina Wajid and the workers of her party have, especially, been targeting Pakistani nationals in one way or the other. We may conclude that besides other pro-Indian moves, Indo-BD defence deal clearly proves that Hasina Wajid’s regime is India’s puppet. —The writer is freelance columnist based in Lahore.
Email:sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
http://pakobserver.net/pakistan-indo-bd-defence-deal/
