Bangladesh Leader Threatens To Shelter Indian Separatist Forces: ‘Will Cut Off Seven Sisters’

Last Updated:December 16, 2025, 10:48 IST

Hasnat Abdullah warned Dhaka might shelter anti-India forces and threatened to sever India's northeastern region.

Speaking at a rally in Dhaka, Abdullah claimed Bangladesh would shelter separatist and anti-India forces targeting India’s Northeast. (IMAGE: X/@basherkella)

Bangladesh’s National Citizen Party (NCP) leader Hasnat Abdullah on Monday warned that Dhaka could shelter forces hostile to India, including separatist groups, and help sever India’s “seven sisters", a term used to describe the country’s northeastern states.

The “seven sisters" refer to Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura. Of these, four states — Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram — share a land border with Bangladesh, underscoring the region’s strategic sensitivity.

Abdullah made the remarks while addressing a gathering at Dhaka’s Central Shaheed Minar.

“We will shelter separatist and anti-India forces and then we will sever the seven sisters from India," Abdullah said, drawing loud cheers from sections of the audience.

India has long accused militant and separatist groups operating in the Northeast of using Bangladesh as a sanctuary, transit route and logistics base, particularly during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Several insurgent outfits from Assam and Tripura maintained camps, safe houses, or support networks across the border during this period.

In Tripura’s case, separatist groups such as the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) were repeatedly linked by Indian security agencies to camps and handlers based in Bangladesh. Officials said cadres crossed into Bangladesh after attacks to evade security forces and that training and arms procurement took place there.

Beyond the Northeast, Bangladesh was also hosted Islamist extremist networks with links to India. Groups such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and later Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were flagged by Indian agencies for their cross-border presence and for facilitating radicalisation and logistics networks affecting eastern India.

This situation changed significantly after Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2009, when Dhaka launched a sustained crackdown on insurgent groups targeting India.

Hasnat also appeared to exert pressure on Bangladesh Election Commission and called it “spineless". He criticised the poll body for labelling the attack on Osman Hadi, an electoral candidate, for calling the incident and “isolated" incident.

News world Bangladesh Leader Threatens To Shelter Indian Separatist Forces: ‘Will Cut Off Seven Sisters’

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