Latest news with #Bangladesh-based
News18
18 hours ago
- Politics
- News18
LeT, Jaish Tap Bangladesh Radical Networks, Use Campuses To Target Indian Students
Last Updated: Top intelligence sources reveal Bangladesh-based groups are now providing legitimate access to LeT and Jaish in universities, where they target Indian students for radicalisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed have joined hands with radical groups in Bangladesh, opening a new front to radicalise Indian youth, CNN-News18 has learnt from top intelligence sources. A recent speech by Saifullah Kasuri, aka Khalid, in Kasur, Lahore, which has gone viral and is now circulating among radical groups, referenced Bengal and the division of the region on May 28. The speech is being actively used in radical circles to fuel propaganda. Bangladesh-based groups are now providing legitimate access to LeT and Jaish in universities, where they target Indian students for radicalisation. These India-based groups are also collaborating with Jamaat-e-Islami, creating a cross-border ideological network. LeT's exploitation of Bangladeshi universities is built on three key pillars: ideological alignment with local radicals, institutional decay, and cross-border impunity. Backed by ISI, LeT operates through multi-layered strategies combining ideological networks, institutional vulnerabilities, and cross-border operational logistics. LeT coordinates with Jamaat's student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir to infiltrate campuses. Shibir grants access to student networks, hostels, and Islamic study circles, which are then used for recruitment. Following the restoration of Jamaat-e-Islami's legitimacy post-2024, this access has become more streamlined. Groups such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), both linked to LeT, operate madrasas near universities. These madrasas indoctrinate students with Wahhabi-Salafi ideologies, framing education as jihad for Islamic revival. UK-based front organisations have also funded radical madrasas that later recruit university students. Shibir members invite Indian students into Islamic study circles, blending religious discussions with LeT propaganda videos. Events at the University of Dhaka have glorified Kashmir terrorists killed as martyrs. LeT's attack footage from India is shared through encrypted apps such as Telegram and Signal, with videos from incidents like the Pahalgam attacks being circulated to incite anti-India sentiments. Radical groups offer scholarships, flood relief, and financial aid to economically vulnerable Indian students. Following the 2024 floods, Jamaat distributed aid along with radical literature. Senior student 'mentors" isolate Indian youth, presenting radicalisation as identity preservation, while enforcing conservative dress codes such as beards and veils to build group loyalty. LeT is also using Bangladesh as a transit hub. Indian students radicalised in Dhaka or Chittagong are sent to LeT camps in Pakistan via Myanmar or Nepal, often under the guise of educational tours. They portray India as oppressing Muslims, leveraging events like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and incidents of communal violence, such as the 2023 temple vandalism to validate jihadist narratives. The post-2024 interim government in Bangladesh lifted bans on Jamaat-e-Islami and allied groups, appointing radicals to key positions, including the Hizb-ut-Tahrir founder as Home Secretary. This has enabled LeT affiliates like Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) to operate openly on campuses. Government concessions to Hefazat-e-Islam, such as compulsory Islamic education, allow madrasas to teach jihadist ideologies unchallenged. Universities have also adopted gender-segregated curricula, normalising extremist norms. Bangladesh's lax NGO oversight, coupled with hundi remittances and money laundering—both significant contributors to its GDP—allow LeT to mask funding as charitable donations. LeT receives funds via NGOs from the Middle East, Gulf, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, under the pretext of reviving Islamic heritage and campus charities. Radicalised students returning to India are deployed as operatives. HuJI-B, JMB, and LeT proxies maintain around 40 sleeper cells in Assam and Nagaland, using Bangladesh-trained Indians to carry out attacks. LeT has also utilised Bangladeshi routes for India-bound operations. The 2025 Pahalgam attack involved a LeT operative who had met a Bangladeshi official prior to the operation. Anti-minority violence in Bangladesh — where nearly 2,200 Hindu-targeted incidents were reported in 2024 — spills over into India, intensifying Hindu-Muslim tensions and aiding in jihadist recruitment.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Indian Express
‘It's my mother, 8-month-old sister in that video': Families of those detained in Assam unsure of where they are
On Wednesday, 22-year-old Barek Ali, a resident of Assam's Darrang district, was forwarded a clip from a Bangladesh-based news channel. It showed a group of people standing in a field surrounded by armed Bangladesh border guards, with locals from the Durgapur border area saying they had been sent across the border by security forces at 3 am that day. In that group was a woman carrying a baby in her arms. When he saw it, Ali immediately recognised them as his mother Manikjan Begum and his 8-month-old sister, who had been missing after they were taken into police custody on May 25. 'Ever since I saw (the video), I feel like I can't breathe. All I can think about is what we can do to get them back,' he said. Begum is among several people who have been detained by police in the past week from across Assam and whose families say that they have not been given information about their whereabouts by authorities. Like most of these people, she had been declared a foreigner by a Foreigner Tribunal in the state in 2019 and spent two years in detention until she was released on bail in 2022. The Assam police and Border Security Force have not responded to queries about these developments. However, a senior BSF official told The Indian Express, 'It is an ongoing process. Anyone found to be a foreigner will be either deported or pushed back.' Ali said his mother was first taken to the Dhula police station in the early hours of May 23 and sent back home the next day. He said she was summoned to the police station again on May 25 with all her documents. 'From there, she was taken to the police reserve in Mangaldai and then to the Superintendent of Police's office in Mangaldai. My father and I waited outside for hours with relatives of others who had also been taken there. The baby was with my father, and she started crying, so my father took her inside and handed her over to my mother. That was the last that we saw of them… No one has told us anything about where they are ever since,' he said. The video he saw was the first clue he got of their whereabouts, and played into his fear since he saw another video a day before, which The Indian Express had reported on: One shared by a Bangladeshi journalist, in which another detained person, Khairul Islam, a resident of Assam's Morigaon district, can be heard saying that he was pushed into Bangladesh by security forces on Monday morning. Several such video clips have fuelled fear and confusion in Assam. Malek Ostar (37) said that his mother, Majeda Khatun (60), was also detained from Darrang district on May 24 alongside several others. 'In that video (of Manikjan Begum and her child), we can see the relatives of people we were waiting with in Mangaldoi, but we can't see my mother, who had been taken with them. I went to see our lawyer in Guwahati and to the Matia detention camp to try and find out if she's there, but I don't know anything about where she is,' he said. Majeda Khatun is also a declared foreigner, and her lawyer, Muij Uddin Mahmud, said her appeal against the Foreigners' Tribunal order is going on in the Gauhati High Court. Habibul Bepari, a volunteer with NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace, said he is looking for information on Doyjan Bibi, a declared foreigner from Dhubri district who was released on bail from detention in 2021 and whose case he has been working on. He said there has been no information about her whereabouts since she was detained on May 25. The family of Abdul Hanif (40) from Golaghat district said he was taken by the police on Sunday morning. With no information on his whereabouts, his brother Din Islam travelled to the Matia detention camp in Goalpara to try to find him. 'We went there on Wednesday, but we were not allowed to enter, and the police there told us that no one from Golaghat had been brought to the camp. I will try my luck with lawyers in Guwahati now,' said his brother.
Hans India
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Pakistan links of arrested JMB activist in Bengal being probed
Kolkata: Pakistan links of one of the three Indian associates of Bangladesh-based Islamic fundamentalist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), who were arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) of West Bengal Police earlier, are being probed. Sources said coded encrypted messages recovered from the mobile phones of Aazmal Hossain and Saheb Ali Khan, who were arrested from Birbhum district earlier this month, show their links only with associates of Bangladesh-based fundamentalist outfits, namely JMB, Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HUT), and Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT). However, the sources added that similar coded and encrypted messages recovered from the mobile phones of the third arrested local associate of JMB, Abasuddin Molla, show his regular communication with some individuals based out of Pakistan as well as with those associated with the Jammu and Kashmir-based fundamentalist group Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind. Molla was arrested from Paturi village in the minority-dominated Diamond Harbour area in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, just a day after two others were held from Birbhum district. The cops have also recently updated a district court in Birbhum about their initial findings against these arrested accused, both from interrogation as well as through the coded and encrypted messages recovered from their mobile phones. The investigating officials, the sources added, are currently interrogating the trio to get details of their recruits for the sleeper cells of JMB in the state. Recently, the Union Home Ministry received information from intelligence agencies about the alleged role of illegal Bangladeshi intruders behind the violence and vandalism at the minority-dominated Murshidabad district over violent protests against the newly promulgated Waqf (Amendment) Act. The names of JMB, HUT and ABT surfaced in that intelligence input. However, considering the geographical locations of the pockets where the tension and violence had been maximum this time, especially Samserganj, the possibility of ABT playing some role behind the latest violence sounded more logical. On the eastern side of the international borders at Samserganj and Dhulian, is the Bangladeshi district of Chapai-Nawabganj, which is considered the stronghold of ABT. The sources added that because of this geographical proximity, the chances of ABT's involvement in the latest developments at Murshidabad are most likely.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Andritz Equips Pacific Jeans to Recycle Denim Waste
International technology group Andritz has teamed with Bangladesh-based Pacific Jeans to help the latter's pursuit of more sustainable clothing production. The Austria-based company supplied and commissioned a Rexline tearing system for Pacific Jeans, which will allow the company to recycle waste generated during the cutting process of producing jeans. More from Sourcing Journal BGMEA Seeks 3-Month Delay for India's Land Port Ban on Garment Exports Bangladesh, US Engage in Free Trade Agreement Talks Chemical Textile Recycler Eeden Closes $20M Funding Round The Rexline tearing system offers a capacity of up to 800 kg. of fiber per hour, allowing Pacific Jeans to create and provide high-quality fibers to the spinning industry. Yarns from these fibers also will be used by the company to manufacture new jeans. The use of recycled fibers significantly reduces the carbon footprint and cost of clothing production versus using virgin cotton. The garment industry accounts for a large portion of Bangladesh's economy, earning around $50 billion in exports in 2024, according to the Export Promotion Bureau. The country ranks second behind China among the world's top clothing exporters. Fast fashion has been a major part of Bangladesh's garment exports, with brands such as H&M sourcing much of its product from the country. But Bangladesh also has started making moves to reduce its impact on the growing problem of global textile waste. In 2023, the country held its first Bangladesh Circular Economy Summit, gathering stakeholders from the South Asian nation along with global brands and governmental representatives to work toward a more circular garment industry. Pacific Jeans Group has produced premium denim in Bangladesh since 1984. The company has made a commitment to sustainability, working with partners such as Andritz to improve circularity and achieve a net-zero climate impact. 'It has been a pleasure to work with Andritz on this Rexline installation, which helps us to build our responsible supply chain,' said Syed M. Tanvir, managing director of Pacific Jeans. 'Bangladesh's dynamic clothing industry has great potential for post-industrial waste recycling. By transforming our cutting waste and reusing this recycled fiber in fabric production, we aim to close the loop and move the fashion industry towards a greener future.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Mint
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Muhammad Yunus ‘thinking about' resigning as Bangladesh interim govt chief: ‘Feels somewhat embarrassed'
Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus reportedly threatened to resign if parties do not give him their backing, a political ally and sources in his office said Thursday. Rumors about the chief adviser's possible resignation had been circulating on social media since Thursday afternoon. Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party, confirmed that Yunus was "thinking about resigning." He held a private conversation with the chief adviser amid the rumours, sources told Dhaka Tribune. "We have been hearing news of sir's resignation regarding the current situation in the country since this morning. So, I went to meet sir to discuss that matter," Nahid Islam told BBC Bangla. "He says he's thinking about it. He feels like the situation is such that he won't be able to work," Nahid said. Nahid Islam — who had initially been part of Yunus's cabinet before resigning to form a political party — reportedly 'urged him to remain in office.' It was also learned that the chief adviser sought cooperation from all parties. Yunus expressed discontent about relentless protests over myriad demands, Bangladesh-based Daily Star reported. Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads the caretaker government as its chief advisor until elections, told his cabinet he wanted to quit if political parties did not give him their full support, a source inside his office. Meanwhile, a source told Dhaka Tribune, 'The chief adviser feels somewhat embarrassed due to the continuous agitation on various issues recently. He does not want to remain in office if he cannot work independently. This situation was discussed during the meeting.' Nahid also quoted Yunus as saying, 'I cannot work like this. The political parties cannot reach a common ground.' Yunus's reported threat to stand down comes a day after thousands of supporters of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rallied in Dhaka, holding large-scale protests against the interim government for the first time. The BNP, on Thursday, reportedly issued a stark warning that it may be forced to reconsider its cooperation with Yunus' interim government if a specific roadmap for holding the next general election within December next is not announced immediately. Elections, whenever held, will end Yunus' term as the Chief Adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh.
