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The Honorable Prime Minister Tarique Rahman should not go to India. And the article should have ended there after just those 11 words. But the editorial team tell me they cannot post something that is just 11 words long. I am now having to sit here angrily and type on my laptop.
So let us get straight into it then. I will start off with a name: Robiul Islam, and I will come back to that individual later in the article. India has essentially set the stage to assassinate the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and it was made clear recently in an interview where an Indian “journalist,” Subir Bhumik, someone who, if I am not mistaken, was under investigation by the BBC and had to subsequently resign because of allegations of multiple false reporting. Due to the strict Data Protection Laws in the UK, this information remains confidential. I had the misfortune of meeting him once or twice at the BBC Bush House while we were stationed at the Bangladesh High Commission in London between 2002 and 2007, along with Toufique Khalidi of BDNews24; they were both working for the BBC at that point. I am pretty confident this Subur Bhumik later joined the BDnew24 after he had to resign from the BBC.
Shottify, a fact checking organization have identified and debunked over 1.5K and counting lies, plain and simple lies the Indian networks, social media users, and these so called “journalists” like Subir Bhumik and Deep Halder, who like a creepy stalker not being able to get over a breakup, keep stalking and writing about Bangladesh. In a seminar recently, this Deep Halder claimed the murder of the poor, unfortunate teenager Felani Khatun, who was shot dead by the BSF and left dangling from the barbed wires, was a story fabricated by Bangladesh. He claims to be a defender of the Hindu fate, but as I write this article, Indian Hindus are being attacked during the Cockroach movement. Hundreds of Hindus are coming under attack by their security forces. So where is this Deep Halder today to defend the Hindus in India? This clearly demonstrates how Indians and India play the “Minority Persecution” card to stain the image of Bangladesh under Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.
This Subir Bhumik recently in an interview with one of his cronies in Bangladesh, made threats at the Prime Minister as well as weaving a tale about one of their government officials’ super “secret” ingress and egress from Dhaka. All this happened while the Prime Minister was taking a photo with the American President Trump in New York. A photo India could not purchase even after hiring 2 lobbyists, with a rumored retainer of $1 Million per week. Once the photo was made public, the mighty Indian Facebook army and the media jumped on the fact Bangladesh has placed an order for 10 Boeing airplanes, forgetting.. NO, actually knowing them, they have ZERO knowledge of the fact Indian airlines operate over 250 Boeing aircraft.
Would you go to someone’s house if the occupants in that property were publicly speaking disrespecting you, your family, and your house? I guess India would, regardless of how many times President Trump and other world leaders publicly humiliate India, Indians and the government. The PM of Bangladesh did not need to hire lobbyists in America to take a picture with the Indian Prime Minister’s “Best Friend”.
Do not for a moment think their comments and articles are not endorsed by the Indian government. These lies they continue to spread on social media and in the media are designed to make Bangladesh a target. Now let us consider a scenario where the Prime Minister travels to India, fueled by lies of Hindu persecution in Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. One or a handful of the RSS/BJP activists poison the PM’s food or lace his utensils with poison. What will be the response of the Indian Government? They will claim it was the doings of a rogue element or elements; “distance” themselves and “deny” any involvement in the incident: desired outcome of removing Prime Minister Tarique Rahman achieved.
Let us return to that Indian national who was apprehended from the Uttara area in Dhaka on suspicion of espionage for an Indian “Intelligence” agency. I use the word “Intelligence” very loosely; 24,000 terrorist attacks on their soil are not a joke. Robiul Islam has since been arrested and placed in remand under the Official Secrets Act. During interrogation, he has confessed he took photos of sensitive government institutions, buildings, military installations and individuals; and have passed them on to his contacts in India and “elsewhere”. Now the question is, how many more “Robiul Islams” are there? Is he a single rogue element, or is there a network of Robiul Islams in Bangladesh? For a single moment, let us take the rumor of 7 million (70 Lac) Indians having bought Bangladesh citizenship from 2007 to 2023 seriously. What that means is there is potentially a network of sleeper cells in Bangladesh; they have access to government organizations and restricted areas. Let’s consider they enter government jobs, including the military, effectively creating an Indian shadow government in Bangladesh.
To ensure that hostile forces do not get a free hand to carry out their espionage operations in Bangladesh, we must amend the vehicle registration policy, amongst other vital changes that are required in the outdated laws and regulations of this land. We live in the year 2026, but our rules and regulations feel like they are from 1026. Currently the vehicle registration and license plate regulations allow foreign citizens and foreign business entities operating in Bangladesh to have the same license plates as Bangladeshi citizens. This allows these hostile elements to camouflage and blends into the capitals traffic, giving them access to government zones, diplomatic enclaves, and sensitive sites without raising suspicion.
A distinct plate design, color and number sequence for foreign nationals who are working in Bangladesh would allow the intelligence & security agencies to instantly identify vehicles requiring observation, allowing rapid verification and implementing a layer of security and surveillance that is now missing. This simple visual differentiation would make it far harder for such networks to conduct reconnaissance or position themselves near high-value targets.
This Robiul Islam is not an isolated incident. We must not forget that another incident had happened before as well, when a Bangladeshi origin US citizen named Enayet Karim Chowdhury was arrested during the Interim government period. This Enayet Karim Chowdhury was also apprehended on suspicion of espionage, working for the same Indian intelligence agency, proving yet again that this is not a case of a single rogue element but repeated attempt of infiltration that spreads across different governments and different timelines.
The question that follows is simple: if a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin can be recruited and deployed against us, how many others are out there? How many more are waiting, embedded in our society, holding foreign loyalties, ready to strike when the order comes? The Interim government period was not free from this threat and neither will any future, unless we confront this situation head on.
The espionage network is only one piece of the puzzle. Let us now turn to the matter of the Indian Foreign Minister, who, after the fall of their selected government, told the Indian parliament that 8000 Indian students were evacuated from Bangladesh. EVACUATED EIGHT THOUSAND?!! Let those words sink in. What were these so-called students doing in Bangladesh in the first place? India never misses an opportunity to boast how their education system is far superior to ours, that their institutions are world class, their citizens would never even consider studying in a country they publicly describe as a basket case. And yet, here we have 8000 of them, who were supposedly enrolled in Bangladeshi institutions, requiring a full-scale evacuation operation. None of that makes any logical sense. Either their education system is not as superior as they claim, or these individuals were not students at all. They were intelligence operatives stationed here to honeytrap, gather information, recruit and to build future networks.
And that is not the end of it is it? we now learn 3000 Indian nationals were evicted from Bangladesh for staying beyond their visa. Were they here as tourists who simply lost track of time because of the beef korma? Or were they here for reasons far more diabolical, reasons that directly threaten our national security and the safety of our Prime Minister and his family? When you have 3000 individuals overstaying their welcome, it is not an error. It is an active operation, you have a coordinated presence of foreign nationals who have no legitimate reason to remain in our country, and they may have been embedded here to serve an extremely sinister purpose.
When you connect the dots, the picture becomes terrifyingly clear. We have the 8000 so called students evacuated after the fall of their selected government. We have the 3000 Indian nationals recently evicted for staying beyond their visa. We have Robiul Islam the arrested Indiana spy, we have Enayet Karim Chowdhury the Bangladeshi origin US citizen arrested during the Interim government period, we have the rumored 7 million who have bought Bangladeshi citizenship, and then of course, we have the constant stream of hate, threats and lies from the Indian media and the so-called journalists like Subir Bhumik and Deep Halder.
These are not a random series of unrelated incidents. This is a pattern, a coordinated attack on the sovereignty and security of Bangladesh, and it is being carried out not only by the Indians but also by their proxies, their agents, their sleeper cells embedded within our society. The 8000 so called students, the 3000 over stayers, the spies they are all part of the same circle, and that circle has one clear objective: to destabilize Bangladesh, to remove its leadership, and to bring our nation under the heel of a foreign power that has never wished us anything but harm.
This is not a hypothetical threat; it is a clear and present danger. The man we know as Robiul Islam is just one confirmed case, a single element in what appears to be a vast meticulously designed web of espionage. We must face the fact, there is no room for us to hid. Our enemies are not just at the gates, they are already inside the house. And we must now face this threat with an iron hand. Identify the remaining elements, monitor their every movement, list their associates and we mustn’t fear being labelled anti- India. For it is just another way of saying Pro- Bangladesh. We must secure our borders, vet our citizens, and root out this network of traitors from within. We must shut down their poisonous propaganda channels and show them that we will not be intimidated by a nation that uses lies and assassination as tools of statecraft.
And let us be absolutely clear about one thing. There is no evidence that the remaining elements are not spying for their spy agencies, taking pictures and videos of us, you, me, the Prime Ministers resident, the security personnel and sending them to the same “intelligence” agencies Robiul Islam and Enayet Karim Chowdhury were employed by. No evidence whatsoever. We have no way of knowing what they are doing, who they are reporting to, or what their intentions are. And until we do, we must assume the worst, because assuming less is what got us into this situation in the first place. We cannot afford to be naive any longer, we cannot afford to give them the benefit of the doubt. The stakes are too high, the threat is too real, and the cost of complacency is too great.
So, I return to my original point, the one I made in just 11 words: The Honorable Prime Minister Tarique Rahman should not go to India. To do so, would be to knowingly walk into a trap, to present himself to a government that has proven to be hostile and it will not stop trying to destabilize our Bangladesh. It would be extremely naive for us to stand on their soil, to eat their food and to trust their guarantees of safety when they have time and time again made it clear they expect Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to travel to India, kneel before their leadership and call them masters.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Sarabangla English Edition’s editorial stance.