Thanks to Sheikh Hasina

So are times different in the Awami League-ruled Bangladesh too? It seems. In the wake of the Sashadhar Choudhury-Chitrabon Hazarika episode (the two were reportedly picked up by the Bangladesh Army and Directorate General of Field Intelligence from a house in Dhaka and handed over to India), the Northeast militant groups long safeguarded in Bangladesh, thanks specially to the former, anti-India Khaleda Zia regime, are reported to be on the run, fearing a similar fate. Bangladesh’s recent crackdown on the Northeast militant/terrorist outfits in its territory might be a precursor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s proposed trip to New Delhi, but she needs to do a lot more to clip the wings of the Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that have spread far and wide in her country to concretize the foundation of the Greater Islamic State project that envisages annexation of Assam to Bangladesh. Hasina’s promise to flush out militants of all hues from her country will be tested this time, as also the one of making of a new era of secularism in an Islamized Bangladesh after weeding out the  fanatical forces that had had a free run during Khaleda Zia’s time. Much depends on the will of the new Dhaka dispensation to embark on a civilized course, including a new relationship with India. When Hasina visits New Delhi, we shall wait for signals to that end to emanate. THE SENTINEL