Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed 26 lives, a retired Bangladeshi major general has made a provocative statement against India.
ALM Fazlur Rahman, who is considered close to Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, stated that if New Delhi takes retaliatory military action against Pakistan, his country should invade and occupy all seven northeastern states of India.
According to reports, Rahman, a former head of the Bangladesh Rifles (now Border Guard Bangladesh), has called for emulating China’s strategy to launch an attack against India.
“If India attacks Pakistan, Bangladesh will have to occupy the seven states of northeast India. In this regard, I feel it is necessary to start discussions on a joint military arrangement with China,” Rahman wrote in a Facebook post.
Rahman’s inflammatory remarks come at a delicate time, as New Delhi and Dhaka are attempting to repair relations that soured after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought asylum in India, and amid India’s growing concerns over attacks targeting Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.
Tensions escalated further when Muhammad Yunus, during a March visit to China, made controversial remarks about India’s northeastern states.
Referring to the region as the “Seven Sisters,” Yunus noted that this landlocked area lacks direct sea access. He described Bangladesh as the region’s “only guardian of the ocean” and suggested it could serve as a key extension of China’s economy.
His comments drew sharp criticism from leaders of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In what appeared to be a direct rebuttal, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar emphasized during a BIMSTEC foreign ministers’ meeting that the northeast is emerging as a major connectivity hub, with expanding road, rail, waterway, power grid, and pipeline networks. He also reaffirmed India’s “special responsibility” within the BIMSTEC framework.
Shortly after Yunus’s remarks, India ended a nearly five-year-old arrangement permitting Bangladeshi exports to be transshipped via Indian ports and airports, citing increased cargo congestion as the reason.
