Pakistan, ISI ‘biggest threat’ to India & us: Bangladesh

Adviser to Bangladesh’s Prime Minister on International Crimes, Wali-ur Rahman, said on Monday that Pakistan is an epicentre of terrorism and not only India, but his country has also been a victim of its terror activities.

“Pakistan and ISI have been the biggest threat to us as they keep sending their operatives to India and Bangladesh... ISI is still an epicentre of terror...Not only in these two countries, but they also dispatch their operatives to Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and all over the SAARC countries,” Rahman told PTI, on the sidelines of two-day ‘Megacity Security Conference’ that started in Mumbai on Monday.

“They are a destabilising force. They tried to destabilise us too, but failed. They set up 101 training camps on our soil to train Indians to fight against Indians. But we pushed them back with the active support of India. We cannot think that Pakistan should use our land for anti-India activities,” Rahman, a former Secretary in Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.

The conference is being attended by policy makers, law enforcement officials, security experts and leading thinkers representing eight different countries. They will share first- hand experience about dealing with security policy in some of world’s megacities such as Mumbai, New York, Istanbul, Chicago, Manila, Dhaka, Nairobi and Mexico.

Terming India a friend in true sense, Rahman, an expert on national security and counter-terrorism, said, “Bengalis are very emotional people. Every Bengali is with us, except two political outfits Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who supported ISI in our country.”

“But when Sheikh Hasina took over as the Prime Minister of the country in 1996, she got rid of ISI and sent me to Delhi to meet the then Home Secretary Padmanabhan. I followed his advice, made a list of ISI training centres and successfully eliminated them,” Rahman said, adding, there may be a few ISI elements active in the country as of now.

Pointing to the helplessness of Pakistan government, Rahman said, “The main plotter of Mumbai attacks is walking freely and we can easily think what kind of position Nawaz Sharif has as Prime Minister there.”