Tribal migrants from Bangladesh pour into India and, with them, terrorists
There are intelligence inputs about infiltration of KNF/KNA militants in guise of 'persecuted' Bawm villagers
Sixteen Bangladeshi nationals of the Bawm (also spelt as Bom) community recently fled their homes to take refuge in Mizoram, which has become a sanctuary for all Chin-Kuki-Zo people displaced from their homes.
The conflict resulting in the displacement has so far failed to get due attention from the Indian policymakers though it has larger ramifications for regional security.
Bawms are a minuscule community inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and trace their ancestry to the larger Chin-Kuki ethnic stock. The latest influx is an indication that the ongoing peace talks between the Bangladesh government and the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) that led to a ceasefire in June this year “did not bear positive results and resumption of special operation by the Bangladesh army against the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA), the armed wing of the KNF, seems likely,” said an internal report of an Indian security agency The Federal has accessed.
The Bangladesh army launched a massive crackdown against the KNF last winter, resulting in the displacement of thousands of innocent Bawm villagers.
Mizoram shelter
Around 1,300 of them have already taken shelter in Mizoram since the crackdown started in October last year.
The latest group of 16, including five women and five children, left their homes in Bangladesh’s Rumana village in Ruma upazila of Chittagong division on August 23, according to information from Indian security agencies.
Bawms are a minuscule community inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and trace their ancestry to the larger Chin-Kuki ethnic stock
They first crossed over to Myanmar from near a Bangladesh village called Kes Pai (Khumi) and, after a long journey on foot through the hilly tracts, entered Mizoram near village Tuisentlang on September 2, security sources said, quoting the migrants. They reached their final destination the next day.
The refugee crisis is not the only concern when it comes to Bawm migrants, said a senior security official posted in Mizoram.
There are intelligence inputs with the security agencies about the “infiltration” of KNF/KNA militants in the guise of “persecuted villagers”.
The security agencies got a whiff of the presence of a training base of the militant outfit inside Mizoram when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded in a dense forest near Chamdur 'P' village in south Mizoram's Lawngtlai district on June 26, informed sources told The Federal.
KNF history
The greater security worry for India is that the KNF has been training and aiding a Bangladesh-based Islamic terrorist outfit called Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya or Sharqiya group in short, the sources added.
The KNF, also known as the Bawm Party, was established in 2017 with an avowed goal of creating a breakaway state within Bangladesh. But sources within the Indian security forces claimed the group was raised by the Bangladesh army to create a division among 11 indigenous tribes of the CHT collectively referred to as Jumma.
The Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), the only political organisation of the multilingual Jumma people, in a statement on the 25th Anniversary of the CHT Accord last December, accused the Bangladesh government of pursuing a ‘divide and rule’ policy to foil the implementation of the historic peace agreement.
It alleged that the Bangladesh army had been raising “one after the other armed terrorist groups in league with the opportunist and ambitious persons from among the Jumma communities” to subvert the movement for implementation of the Accord.
The KNF’s opposition to the 1997 CHT Peace Treaty made its role suspicious. It fell out with the Bangladeshi authority after the former allegedly started “double-crossing” in 2019, drawing the ire of Bangladesh’s security forces.
Sharqiya links
The KNF started providing shelter and training to members of the Sharqiya group for a contract of Bangladeshi Taka 3 lakh per month and the expenditure for food, according to sources in the Indian security agencies.
The activities of the Sharqiya group came to light when Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) started investigating the disappearance of seven youths from Cumilla last September.
Around 1,300 Baums have taken shelter in Mizoram since the crackdown in Bangladesh started last October
Shamin Mahfuz, the founder of the Sharqiya group, and KNF chief Nathan Bom (Bawm) studied in Dhaka University at the same time although they were from different departments.
Bom earned his Master's degree from the university's Fine Arts Faculty while Mahfuz obtained a Master's in Sociology from the university. He had a brief stint as a professor.
The KNF trained more than 50 members of the Sharqiya group, according to the information available from the Indian agencies. The new recruits were initially given basic training at the CHT camp of the Sharqiya group called Ansar Houses (Houses of the Helpers).
Advance training
After that, they were sent to the KNF camp in Bandarban for advanced training. There they were trained in handling sophisticated lethal weapons such as AK-47 rifles, 9 mm handguns and pistols, pistols, sawn-off guns, and grenades. They were also taught how to make bombs (IED) and lay ambushes. The KNF was trained by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) of Myanmar.
Sharqiya group founder Mahfuz was arrested along with his wife by Bangladesh’s anti-terror unit RAB in June this year from his CHT hideout. KNF president Nathan Bom and many top leaders of the Sharqiya group are still at large. Sharqiya's two top ranking leaders, Karshey and Simrat, who are experts in making IEDs, are reportedly running the group now.
Anti-India
A massive manhunt has been launched to nab them. They are believed to be hiding somewhere in the tri-junction of India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar near Mizoram.
If the Sharqiya group is not completely eliminated, it could pose a serious security threat to India as the outfit aims to take over India's eastern region through the “Gazwatul Hind” or the ‘Conquest of India' movement, a senior army official attached to the Dimapur-based 3 Corps said.
The outfit is backed by the Pakistan-based al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and the Bangladesh chapter of Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) apart from the KNF.
