Unwelcome Passengers

When the direct bus service starts rolling this month between Dhaka andCalcutta, many will be lined up to cheer at the border. Spot a glum face in the crowd?Chances are that it belongs to a law-enforcement official. From either side of the border.

Concern runs high in Calcutta, which has emerged as the new sanctuary for un-orthodoxpolitical elements from Bangladesh. In just the last few weeks, a Bangladeshi politicaltheorist who wants to redraw the subcontinental map has met with extreme left leaders; aleading light of the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party (BNP) has held a secret meeting with anexpat Chakma leader; and the suspected killer of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is said to haveholed up in West Bengal along with the murderers of a Bangladeshi socialist leader.

Meanwhile in Dhaka, while the bus service has forced even rabid anti-India elements topipe down, speedbreakers loom ahead as Bangladesh frets over the worsening situation nearthe border. The assassination of a respected opposition leader last month at Kushtia onthe Bangladesh-West Bengal border sparked off fears that his murderers had fled intoIndia. Like many before, they are suspected to have taken shelter in camps allegedlylinked to Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

On a happier note, Dhaka saw some rumbles but few protests after the formal signing ofthe protocol last month in New Delhi paving the way for the direct bus link. "Wecouldn’t afford to ignore the surge of interest in having a direct bus link,"says Karar Mahmudul Hasan, joint secretary of the Bangladesh ministry of Communication,who signed the protocol.

The traditional  pockets of resistance, he said, were neutralised by thecommencement of the Delhi-Lahore bus service last month. The feeling was that if two swornenemies could bury their differences, there was no reason for Dhaka and Calcutta not tomeet—considering that their inhabitants have so much more in common.

There were some hold-outs, naturally. Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary generalof the Jamaat-e-Islami, asserts the planned bus service "...is part of a grand Indiandesign to subjugate Bangladesh." His reaction was only to be expected— whatwasn’t is that Nizami’s followers do not plan marches or hartals in protest.

The bus service is expected to commence in the next week for a month-long trial run,probably with the Indian prime minister aboard for the inaugural run. If all goes well,commercial operations will take off after a month. But for law enforcement officials, theplying of the buses is a distraction from more pressing problems— infiltration andinsurgency have been on the rise on both sides for some time now.

Says an Indian external affairs ministry spokesman, "Calcutta and Kathmandu arethe new loci for regional political activity, involving Indian insurgents, Bangladeshidissidents and the Pak-based ISI. They use these cities to arrange meetings and contactsthat were earlier held in Singapore or Bangkok." In the past, many of these‘visitors’ were denied Indian visas, but that seems to have changed after theBJP-led coalition took over.

Official interest in Calcutta centres on the activities of maverick BangladeshiSalauddin Qader Choudhury, aka Shaka, whose proposal for a new regional grouping hascreated a stir. Choudhury says the nation-state concept has failed in South Asia, citingthe examples of a fractured Pakistan and a Bangladesh that is not home to a large numberof Bengalis in the region.

In a recent paper, he suggests the formation of four new regions, each to have equalconfederate status. These are: (north) the undivided Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, the NWFP andUttar Pradesh; (west) Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Sindh, Madhya Pradesh; (east)Bangladesh, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, North East, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal; and(south) the four southern states along with Sri Lanka and Pondicherry.

Choudhury’s supporters tout this as a magic panacea for ills ranging from theKashmir problem to illegal infiltration, arms smuggling and drug trafficking. They say itwould also herald the entry of a new power bloc as countries from the region unite as oneentity—south Asia.

At the recent book fair, Choudhury was seen discussing his ideas with intellectuals andthe spokesmen of various Naxalite  groups. He also met Morshed Khan, a Dhakabusinessman who is known to be close to the Khaleda Zia-led B N P. But  Khan deniedthat politics was on the menu, saying that he was in Calcutta to visit "ailingrelatives".

The meeting between Choudhury and Chakma rebel leader Santu Larm a towards the end ofFebruary where Khan was also present was another intriguing event. The Chakma peace accordis proving difficult to implement in Bangladesh. The BNP has always been opposed to thevery idea of autonomy for the Chakmas in the Chittagong hill tracts. This has led toconfrontation and bloodshed between the government and the Chakmas. Is the BNP now tryingto fish in troubled waters in order to hobble the ruling Awami league?

Official agencies monitoring Choudhury sighted him first in Singapore and then back inWest Bengal, where he also met members of the Sarbahara Party of Bangladesh. They aresuspected of having escaped to India after murdering a prominent Bangladeshi socialistleader.

Choudhury wasn’t the only one whose movements were keeping the Indian authoritiesbusy. There was also Moslemuddin, a former soldier who is the prime accused in the 1975murder of Sheikh Mujib. About a year ago, Bangladeshi authorities trawling a worldwide netfor Sheikh Mujib’s killers alerted India that Moslemuddin had escaped to Tripura. Heis known to have visited Nepal in recent weeks, according to intelligence reports, but isnow based in north Bengal.

"All these movements are well-timed—it would be simplistic to ignore them ascoincidence," says an intelligence source in Calcutta. "Some plans are beinghatched here by Bangladesh political leaders; not good news for the ruling Awami league.Earlier, the killers of Mujib and their political protectors in the BNP used to meet inBangkok or Singapore, but now clearly  they prefer the anonymity of Calcutta and themore relaxed ambience of Kathmandu."

During Sheikh Hasina’s recent visit to Calcutta, Bangladeshi authorities hadalerted both the central and state governments about the presence of elements hostile toher in West Bengal. But the state police hardly helped matters when they set a suspectedISI agent free after preliminary interrogation. Recently, while other states helped tocompile a fact-file on known etremists and saboteurs, the West Bengal police aborted itsefforts half-way.

That’s bad news for Bangladesh. For the last two decades, the area betweensouthern Khulna and southwestern Kushtia bordering West Bengal has witnessed murder andmayhem on such a regular basis that carnage is commonplace. In  December 1998 alone,39 people were murdered, chiefly because of infighting between out-lawed Communist groups.

But last month, the assassination of opposition leader Kazi Aref Ahmed along with fourof his associates at a public meeting in Kushtia renewed debate over the failure of thelaw enforcement agencies to protect inhabitants—or prevent criminals from taking tothe safety of the border.

Police in Bangladesh have arrested 40 suspects, but believe that the real assassinshave taken shelter across the border — perhaps in ISI-run camps. "I’ve astrong hunch that the ISI is behind his killing," said Kazi Aref’s brother.

As the flashbulbs go off a fortnight hence, watch for those worried faces in the crowd.While the rest of Calcutta and Dhaka celebrates the road link between the two countries,they’ll be wondering about other things. Like whether a barbed wire fence would helpeach side deal with the unwanted guests and fleeing criminals who make their bordercrossings far away from the headlines. 

Ashis K. Biswas in Calcutta and Arshad Mahmud in Dhaka