Pakistani ISI attempts to drag Bangladesh into a new era of regional terror

Analysis

By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is once again playing with fire - and dangerously close to Bangladesh’s borders. A massive madrasa near Dhaka, previously flagged by security agencies as a breeding ground for radicalization, has abruptly shut down its entire operations, with senior members disappearing overnight. This shock closure came immediately after the arrest of several medical practitioners from Faridabad-based Al Falah University, as well as the detention of Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, the powerful chairman of the Al Falah group, in connection with the recent Delhi blast. According to law enforcement intelligence in Dhaka, the madrasa had long maintained “communication channels” with certain religious charities and private donors associated with the Gulf region and Pakistan. Yet, despite years of suspicion, no decisive investigation had been conducted.

A madrasa does not vanish overnight unless someone is trying to erase the trail. The timing of this shutdown - coming immediately after the arrest of Al Falah University-linked individuals in India for the Delhi blast - is too precise to be dismissed as a coincidence. Someone tipped them off. Someone warned them that investigators were getting too close. That “someone”, many counterterrorism experts believe, is linked to the same ISI-backed ecosystem that has historically used Bangladesh as a playground for destabilization.

It may be mentioned here that Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, the chairman of the Al Falah group, was not a fringe academic. He oversaw an institution with political connections, financial backing from Gulf sources, and an expanding network across South Asia. His arrest has generated fear within many of the terrorist entities, which were covertly continuing activities under various disguises.

Since last year’s Jihadist Coup, international media have underestimated how aggressively ISI, along with its proxies such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), are trying to reestablish operational corridors through our territory. The recent developments demand a bold, unfiltered confrontation with reality.

PoK terrorists scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh

What makes this situation even more precarious is a highly credible

intelligence leak: a team of terrorists from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is expected to enter Bangladesh next week. Among them are at least three seasoned explosives specialists – individuals usually deployed only when a high-impact operation is being prepared.

Sources suggest that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s military intelligence apparatus, is gearing up for a new series of coordinated terror attacks inside India. The plan, experts believe, involves deep collaboration with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), and their satellite groups active across South Asia.

Bangladesh is the next target of this strategy - not as a victim, but as an unwilling host. This is not speculation. This is ISI’s signature pattern.

Whenever ISI prepares for major attacks on Indian soil, two things happen simultaneously:

(1) sleeper networks begin to move, and
(2) suspected radical institutions suddenly go silent.

Both of those things are happening right now.

Pakistan-backed groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) have been quietly reviving contacts inside India’s northeastern states and West Bengal. These groups depend heavily on safe transit routes and logistical nodes inside Bangladesh. The incoming PoK operatives are not visiting as tourists; they are coming to coordinate, recruit, and operationalize.

Bangladesh has spent years fighting extremism. It has sacrificed brave officers, journalists, secular activists, and countless innocent citizens. The nation cannot allow ISI to use our soil as an invisible launchpad for cross-border terrorism. If it happens once, it will happen again. If one madrasa can be used, more will follow. If one militant team enters quietly, others will arrive with greater sophistication and deeper alliances.

This is why the madrasa shutdown must be treated as a national security emergency - not a minor curiosity.

Bangladesh’s political establishment must break the habit of underreacting to clear warning signs. ISI thrives where governments hesitate. It flourishes where bureaucracy fears confrontation. And it embeds itself wherever it senses political distraction.

The truth is simple: ISI’s agenda is not about Islam, Kashmir, or ideology. It is about power. It is about destabilizing neighbors. And it is about exporting chaos to mask its own failures at home.

Bangladesh must not be the next chapter in that agenda. Our intelligence agencies must treat this moment with urgency. Every madrasa with unexplained funding must be scrutinized. Every cross-border traveler from PoK must be monitored. Every dormant extremist cell must be dismantled. And every foreign-funded religious or charitable organization must undergo a forensic financial inspection.

For India, this is a warning. For Bangladesh, this is a wake-up call. For South Asia, this is a crisis in the making.

ISI views the region as a chessboard. It believes that Bangladesh can be manipulated into becoming a strategic pawn - a secondary front for destabilizing India and reviving the terror networks that once plagued this subcontinent.

We must prove ISI wrong. And we must do it now - before the next blast, before the next infiltration, and before the next “mysterious disappearance” of another extremist institution near Dhaka. South Asia cannot afford another era of ISI-made flames. Bangladesh certainly cannot.

Disclaimer: This paper is the author's individual scholastic contribution and does not necessarily reflect the organization's viewpoint.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is an award-winning journalist, writer, and Editor of the newspaper Blitz. He specializes in counterterrorism and regional geopolitics.