Army chiefs of India, Bangla likely to meet

Neighbour Vol. 3 Issue No. 29

June 16-30, 2007

Army chiefs of India, Bangla likely to meet

Democracy may have taken a hit in Bangladesh, but India is willing to do business with the neighbouring country, with the Chief of Army of the two countries likely to meet for a crucial deliberation here shortly. New Delhi has pinned high hopes on the forthcoming visit of Lt. General Moeen U Ahmed to India, and is planning to raise all the issues of concern including presence of militant camps and leaders of outfits like ULFA, NDFB and a few Manipuri outfits.

Although no date has been fixed as yet, Dhaka has confirmed to that the Chief of Bangladesh Army would be travelling to New Delhi shortly for a meeting with General JJ Singh, highly placed sources said.

The meeting, which would be first of its kind in recent times, is significant because of the changed circumstances and willingness of India to do business with the caretaker regime, despite suspension of democratic activities in Bangladesh. The thinking in South Block is that India cannot wait for democracy to be restored to do business with Dhaka, given the high stakes.

As reported earlier, the UPA Government here was sounded out early this year itself by the caretaker government that it was ready to mend fences with India. In exchange of a favourable deal, Bangladesh was willing to address New Delhi’s concern. To convey that it meant business, Dhaka had proposed to send over its Army Chief to India to discuss the deal.

Sources said from the sell of transit route of gas for the North Eastern States to flushing out of the militant outfits like ULFA, NDFB and PLA, there were several vital issues, which India could not shelve into the cold storage. It seems that the caretaker regime is here to stay for now and it would not be in India’s interest to ignore its presence, sources argued.

At the same time, India is also too keen to raise the level of discussion and the ensuing round of meeting is planned to be kept to the official-level. The two Army Chief would discuss the issues of mutual concerns, sources added.

Sources hinted that New Delhi is likely to ask the Lt. General to shut down the camps being operated by the North-East based militants, hand over wanted leaders like Anup Chetia, clamp down on ULFA leaders besides curbing the illegal infiltration from the country. The growing clout of the fundamentalist forces is also another area of concern that is expected to be conveyed.

The Chief Adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed was here to attend the SAARC Summit and Indian leaders got an opportunity to size up the new regime. The Chief Adviser had met the Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister, Home Minister and other senior leaders during his brief stay.

According to sources, their reading of the situation was that the Mohhamad Yunus experiment sought to be tried out by the caretaker regime seems to have flopped and caretaker regime now seems to be keen on trying out new options. The caretaker regime had to withdraw its order of keeping out Awami League chief, Sheik Hasina from Bangladesh. Its move to send former Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia has also run into rough weather.

On the other hand, the two major political parties have started making noises against the Chief Adviser’s regime. Addressing a rally in London yesterday, Hasina questioned the constitutional basis of the interim government led by Fakhruddin Ahmed, She described it as ‘weak’ and demanded early elections.

Leaders of both the political parties have taken direct hits and a number of senior leaders’, former ministers and close relatives have been put behind bars on charges of corruption.

Sources said Dhaka expects India’s help in its hour of crisis. It may seek India’s assistance in restraining Awami League, besides warding off international pressure. The caretaker government wants to clean the political stable before ordering fresh elections, sources added.

Interestingly, India seems confident that the country would not be taken over by the military, like in Pakistan. Last week, Lt General Moeen U Ahmed was widely quoted as saying that Bangladesh’s military has no intention of grabbing power and will return to barracks after cleaning up the nation’s politics.

“The army will not be in politics. It is now assisting the caretaker government. When the need is over, it will return to barracks,” the army chief said.

“One thing must be clear. Will the army grab power? We were under intense pressure to take power. But we did not. We want that democracy continues,” Lt General Moeen was quoted as having said.

“We have only one aim: to rid the country of corruption. We will have no compromise on corruption,” he added. surveillance along the international border up to ‘Zero Line’ irrespective of the presence of habitation within 150 yards.

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