Naypyitaw [Myanmar]: Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is training terror groups in Myanmar and its main goal is to destabilise some countries in the region using cross-border terrorism.
Siegfried O Wolf, an analyst at the South Asia Democratic Forum, a Belgian group based in Brussels, confirmed the possible involvement of the ISI in the training of 40 Rohingya by Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), German news agency DW reported.
The expert said it would be better for Pakistan to choose a third country for cross-border terrorism. This yet again substantiates the fact that Islamabad continues to harbour and support terror and carry out attacks in countries, including Afghanistan and India, in a bid to create instability in the region.
In 2016, the JMB carried out an attack on a Holey Artisan coffee shop near the diplomatic district of Dhaka, claiming 22 lives, mostly foreigners.
Due to this, the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, bordering Myanmar, have become a target for the terror groups.
Abdur Rashid, a Bangladeshi security expert, told DW that there were attempts by extremist Rohingyas in the past, but Dhaka has not allowed them to carry out terror activities. Rashid also said Bangladesh has helped India so far in such matters pertaining to insurgency in north-east India.
He added that Pakistan could “destabilise India” by supporting extremist groups but Bangladesh has assured it will not be allowed.
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Shahriar Alam told DW that attempts to spread extremism in the camps did not prove to be a major success in the past. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has now returned to the border and has increased its operations, according to Myanmarese military officials. The ARSA members are active at night in refugee camps but they are disguised during the day.
For instance, ARSA leader Attah Ullah was born in Pakistan and raised in Saudi Arabia. He and his entourage have been trained in military tactics and carrying out bombings.
The ARSA, which operates on Bangladesh-Myanmar border, also revealed that it had received training from Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or the Pakistani Taliban, a spokesperson of the TTP confirmed the same to DW.
According to foreign diplomats monitoring Cox’s Bazar, ARSA and JMB are linked and videos of them undergoing armed training have surfaced on social media. Weapons used by ARSA members are old AK-47s, M-21s, M-22s and M-16 rifles.
Some of these arms have been likely taken by the group during the seizure of police stations in Myanmar.