Blitz Bureau
FORMER Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s removal in August 2024 appears to have opened a new avenue for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to advance his Islamist agenda under the guise of strengthening trade and defence cooperation with Dhaka. A strategic alliance is taking shape between Turkey, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Jamaate-Islami (JeI) of Bangladesh with the shared objective to sabotage India.
The trilateral nexus is coordinating the flow of funds, arms and weapons and radical Islamic ideology throughout South Asia, leveraging Bangladesh as a critical hub for orchestrating anti-India activities. The latest developments can now be seen in the context of Turkey openly backing Pakistan during India’s Operation Sindoor following the heinous April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Ankara’s increasing engagement with Dhaka could be part of a larger strategy to eliminate pluralism and promote Islamism in the region.
The Jamaat has remained active organisationally despite the ban imposed by the Hasina government. In June, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court restored Jamaat’s registration, thus paving the way for its participation in the next general elections. Jamaat’s re-entry in electoral politics marks a radical shift in Dhaka’s ‘zero tolerance approach’ to religious extremism and terrorism adopted by the erstwhile Awami League government, a move that worked in New Delhi’s favour, given its crackdown on insurgent groups from India’s Northeast that were operating from the Bangladeshi soil.
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) began to support the Muslim Brotherhood network, across the world, including Bangladesh through JeI, since 2010.
Intelligence agencies are extending financial and logistical support to Islamist factions in Bangladesh, most notably, the JeI. Yasin Aktay, a former member of the Turkish Parliament and a former advisor to Erdogan, paid a courtesy call on JeI Ameer Shafiqur Rahman at the party’s central office in Dhaka’s Moghbazar, last month (July 26).
The renovation of JeI’s office was allegedly funded by Milli Istihbarat Teskilati (MIT), which is the National Intelligence Organisation of Turkey and works closely with the Turkish diplomatic missions.
