At the recent Chief Ministers' meet on internal security held in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh outlined the growing threat to the security and integrity of the nation posed by Naxalism and other homegrown insurgent movements, and also highlighted the external support that these insurgencies recieve. Insurgent movements in Northeast India, in particular, have been supported by external forces, especially from Bangladesh. The chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi raised this issue and the potential danger that this holds for the state of internal security in India. He called for increased pressure on Bangladesh to crack down on these insurgent groups operating from its soil. He also emphasized the need for closer monitoring of the border areas that Northeast India shares with Bangladesh and called for immediate completion of border fencing.

This external threat is not something new and is manifest in the continuous cycle of violence and terror in the Northeastern states over the past several years. The region has seen a growth in jihadi groups and fundamentalist political outfits, especially in parts of lower Assam where there is a significant population of illegal Bangladeshi migrants. The Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) of Bangladesh and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan are believed to be active in fomenting terrorist activities in Northeast India.

Many of the insurgent outfits in Northeast India have their bases in Bangladesh and several of their top leaders have been operating from there for a long time now. While Bangladesh has all along denied the presence of Indian militants or their camps on its soil at the official level, the military-backed regime that took over power in Dhaka in January this year, has sent certain informal feelers to India that it has cracked down on many of these insurgent networks inside its territory.

Proof of the Bangladeshi connection and the support that the Northeast insurgent groups get in its territory was revealed recently by Julius Dorphang, the surrendered chairman of the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC). Dorphang was the founder of the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council (HALC) in 1992 along with John Kharkrang and Cheristerfield Thangkhiew, which waged a war against the Indian state for a separate Khasiland. In 1995, all three leaders met in Dhaka and subsequently renamed the HALC as the HNLC.

Dorphang is the first leader of any insurgent group of the Northeast to have openly confirmed his stay in Dhaka and has endorsed the dominant view in India, that almost all northeast militant groups have bases in Bangladesh. Dhaka serves as the base and meeting place for several top leaders of these groups, he revealed saying that he had himself lived in Dhaka for several years in an apartment called Banani close to the airport. The Meghalaya police have confirmed the existence of this place in Dhaka. Dorphang says that the leaders used to meet each other in several hotels and other rented places in Dhaka and also used to shift their bases every six months with the cadres arranging for the meetings and other logistics for their stay in Bangladesh.

Dorphang revealed that the top leadership of every outfit used to stay in Dhaka to ensure better coordination among cadres and leaders of other similar insurgent outfits,. This was also necessary for active coordination with their support bases inside Bangladesh, be it the DGFI or other political parties that helped them. Dorphang disclosed that the HNLC and other militant organizations such as the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have operational presence and camps in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and that almost all the insurgent outfits had close relations with each other within Bangladesh. He also mentioned an instance in which the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) had to close down its camp in Bangladesh due to differences with locals.

Prominent insurgent leaders such as Bobby Marwein and Thangkhiew of the HNLC, Arabinda Rajkhowa and Paresh Baruah of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Ranjan Daimary of the NDFB, Biswamohan Debbarma of the NLFT, Ranjit Debbarma of the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), among many others, are believed to be operating out of Bangladesh.

Dorphang's revelations have raised a number of questions and casts serious aspersions on Dhaka's commitment towards cracking down on insurgent groups of the Northeast on its soil. It also shows New Delhi's inability to prevail upon Dhaka to act decisively on matters pertaining to India's internal security. Bangladesh has, in a way, been successful in pushing its own designs on India's Northeast by supporting such insurgencies through various means. The jihadi influence, which various interest groups within Bangladesh have been supporting, has the potential to foment much trouble in the region, India needs to be more proactive on these concerns for its internal security and put greater weight behind them in order to ensure that Dhaka addresses them.