INDO-BANGLADESH STANDOFF
by B. Raman
Since the last week of January, 2003, tension has been
building up on the Indo-Bangladesh border over the question of continued
illegal immigration of Bangladeshi nationals into India. The attempt
of India's Border Security Force (BSF) to push back into Bangladesh a
recent group of 213 illegal migrants has been resisted by the Bangladeshi
security forces resulting in a confrontational situation. Instead of
appreciating the need for effective action against illegal immigrants, the
so-called secular parties, with the Marxists in the lead, have criticised
the action of the BSF. As in the past, the action of the Central
Government has been projected as anti-Muslim.
2. Where immigration controls are lax, terrorism grows
and internal security is weakened. This has been the experience of
not only India, but also of many other countries such as Pakistan, the
Philippines, the West European countries and the USA.
3. Over the years, Karachi in Sindh and the North-West
Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan of Pakistan have become
practically ungovernable because of large-scale illegal migration
from Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The change in the demographic
composition of Balochistan in general and of Quetta, its capital, in particular
has been dramatic due to the large-scale migration of Pakhtuns from
Afghanistan into the province. In many districts, the Balochis, the
sons of the soil, have been reduced to a minority and Quetta, the capital
itself, stands in danger of becoming a Pakhtun city one day. Fears over
this prospect led to Balochi-Pakhtun clashes in the 1990s.
4. The frequent outbreak of violence in Karachi and its
becoming the epicentre of sectarian and pan-Islamic jihadi terrorism have
been due to the unchecked influx of Afghans, Bangladeshis, Arabs,
particularly Yemenis, and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar into the city
during the last two decades. After Bangladesh became independent in
1971, the total Bengali-speaking population of Karachi came down to an
estimated 10,000. By 1995, it went up to 1,626,324, that is nearly
one-tenth of its population, according to "The News" of November
3,1995. In addition, Karachi had 6,54,693 Pakhtuns from Afghanistan,
2,04,448 Rohingya Muslims, 2, 320 Iranians, 70 Sri Lankan Tamil Muslims
and an unestimated number of Arabs, mainly Yemenis. The Bangladeshi
population of Karachi has grown further, but no fresh estimates are
available.
5. This large-scale influx was partly due to the
encouragement of it by the regime of the late Zia-ul-Haq in order to
weaken the Sindhi and Balochi nationalists, who started clamouring for
independence after the birth of Bangladesh. Moreover, the Islamic
religious parties, which were patronised by Zia, opposed any action
against Muslim migrants from other countries. They projected Pakistan as
the natural sanctuary and protector of persecuted Muslims from all
over the world, whether Islamic or non-Islamic countries.
6. In a secret report submitted to Mrs. Benazir Bhutto,
the then Prime Minister, in 1995, the then Inspector-General of Police of
Karachi pointed out that the activities of different terrorist groups
could not be controlled unless action was taken to stop further illegal
immigration of Muslims into Karachi from other countries and those already
living illegally there were expelled. He expressed his concern over the
alarming increase in the influx of Bangladeshis through India and
cautioned her that if this continued, in another 20 years,
Bengali-speaking people would overtake the Urdu-speaking Mohajirs as the
largest ethnic group in Karachi and that this could lead to a demand for a
second Bangladesh.
7. Alarmed by his report, she ordered the arrest and
deportation of all Bangladeshi migrants in Karachi. The Begum
Khalida Zia Government, which was then in power in Dhaka, refused to
accept them and sent two planeloads back to Pakistan. Her action
created tension in Pakistan-Bangladesh relations and was criticised by the
religious fundamentalist parties as anti-Islam. She was ultimately
forced to abandon it.
8. If today Karachi has emerged as the safe sanctuary of
Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and other pan-Islamic jihadi organisations,
which are members of his International Islamic Front (IIF), this has been
partly due to the total failure of different Governments, whether led by
the political parties or by the Army, to act against the illegal migrants,
due to fears of provoking the religious fundamentalist parties.
9. India is soon likely to face a similar situation if
it does not act against the influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh as
well as Pakistan. While no accurate estimate of the influx is available, many
reports put the influx from Bangladesh alone at over 20 million. The
influx from Bangladesh has been due to economic reasons and from Pakistan
due to the persecution of Mohajirs in Sindh. This uncontrolled influx has
changed the demographic composition of many districts along India's
borders with Bangladesh as well as Pakistan (in the Rajasthan and Gujarat
sectors). Thousands, if not millions, of Bangladeshis, have spread to
other areas of India too and settled down there, including in New Delhi.
10. At almost every annual conference of the
Directors-General of Police from different States, they have projected the
failure of different Governments to act against this influx as posing a
major threat to our internal security, particularly in West Bengal, Assam
and Tripura. Unfortunately, no Government has been able to act
against it because the so-called secular parties and organisations and
large sections of the so-called liberal media have projected any action as
anti-Muslim. The secular parties, particularly the Marxists, also look
upon these illegal migrants as useful additions to their vote banks.
11. The Philippines is another example of what could
happen if immigration controls are lax. The failure of the Governments of
the 1980s to act effectively against large-scale movement of jihadi
Muslims from Pakistan into southern Philippines contributed to its
emergence as the hub of pan-Islamic jihadi terrorism in South-East Asia.
12. One of the important lessons learnt by the USA and
West Europe post-9/11 is the need for effective immigration control,
particularly over the migrants from the Islamic world. Unfortunately, the
Islamic countries have been, in a large measure, the sources of illegal
migration to the rest of the world. While the majority of them have
nothing to do with the spread of terrorism, this influx is exploited by
pan-Islamic jihadi organisations and trans-national crime groups to spread
terror and crime. It is the realisation that there cannot be effective
internal security without effective action against illegal migrants, which
has been responsible for the strong action taken by the John Howard
Government in Australia and by the Bush administration in the USA. The
procedures for the compulsory registration in the USA of migrants from
"countries of concern", all of them Muslim, including Pakistan
and Bangladesh, have been justified on grounds of national security.
Despite the Bush Administration's strong backing for the Pervez Musharraf
regime in Islamabad, it has rejected its request for exempting the
Pakistanis from this requirement. Its Attorney-General has rightly taken
the stand that where national security is concerned no relaxation can
be allowed for any reason, political or otherwise. Large sections of the
political and public opinion in the USA have backed the stand of the
Government.
13. The problem posed by the large-scale illegal
immigration of Muslims from other countries into India, and particularly
from Bangladesh, is much more serious than in any other country of the
world. Our Government has at long last woken up to the need to stop this.
All right-thinking persons, who are concerned over the deterioration in
our internal security over the years, should strongly back this action by
the BSF. Our national security is more important than good relations
with Bangladesh.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet
Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For
Topical Studies, Chennai, and Convenor, Advisory Committee, Observer
Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com
)
