A sudden visit to Delhi by Major General Abu Mohammad Sarwar Farid, director general of Bangladesh’s National Security Intelligence (NSI), has set off fresh discussion about security cooperation between India and Bangladesh.
The senior intelligence officer left Dhaka for Delhi on Sunday (October 25). Neither India nor Bangladesh has officially given any details of the purpose of the trip, which has led to speculation in diplomatic circles about its significance.
According to observers in Delhi, alongside security and the exchange of intelligence between the two countries, the question of extraditing former prime minister Sheikh Hasina could also become an important part of the background to this visit. It has not been officially confirmed, however, whether Hasina’s return will be discussed during the visit.
The visit by the head of Bangladesh’s National Security Intelligence comes at a time when the demand to bring Hasina back home and the strains in bilateral relations are major issues in the two countries’ diplomatic talks. Bangladesh has already made a formal request to India for Hasina’s extradition.
India, for its part, says the matter is being considered in line with legal procedure and the relevant rules. No timeframe for a decision has been announced.
Hasina’s return remains a subject of discussion in Bangladesh’s political circles. She is living in India, and the cases against her in Bangladesh’s courts have made the issue even more sensitive. The gap between the positions of Dhaka and New Delhi on her extradition is also a significant obstacle to normalising relations between the two countries.
For Delhi, security cooperation with Bangladesh is not only a matter of political relations. The two countries’ long border, cross-border crime, militant activity, arms and drug trafficking and regional security all require regular contact. These issues are expected to come up during the Bangladeshi intelligence chief’s visit, though no specific programme of meetings has been made public.
The internal conflict in Myanmar and the Rohingya crisis could also feature in the security talks. The situation in Myanmar affects the security of Bangladesh’s border areas and of India’s northeast. Sharing information on cross-border infiltration, human trafficking and the movements of armed groups is in the interest of both countries.
Before this visit, there had also been talk in various quarters of a reported visit to Bangladesh by India’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval. Neither India nor Bangladesh made any official statement confirming that visit. So while there is speculation about the recent course of security-level contacts between the two countries, the public information needed to draw firm conclusions remains limited.
The big question for Delhi now is how to strengthen security cooperation with Bangladesh while managing Dhaka’s concerns over Hasina’s extradition. For Bangladesh, the demand to bring Hasina back is important both politically and judicially. Reconciling these two positions will not be easy.
Sarwar Farid’s trip to Delhi is therefore significant not just as an intelligence official’s foreign visit but in the current context of India-Bangladesh relations. However, no confirmed information has yet emerged to support any claim that an understanding has been reached on Hasina’s return or that a specific timetable has been set.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report