Pakistan Army plans to return to Bangladesh for the first time since 1971

New Delhi: In what may send alarm bells ringing in the Indian establishment Pakistan Army for the first time since 1971 has reached an agreement with Bangladesh to train its Army beginning February 2025.

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The training will be conducted in four cantonments of Bangladesh Army beginning with Mymensingh cantonment in February, ET has reliably learnt. Mymensingh houses training and doctrine command headquarters of the Bangladesh Army. Sources alleged that Maj Gen rank officers from Pakistan may train Bangladesh Army officers.

The agreement for cooperation between Armies of Pakistan and Bangladesh was reached in the backdrop of the Yunus regime’s effort to improve ties with Islamabad. The first training module guided by the Pakistan Army could last for a year. The proposal to Bangladesh was offered by Pakistan Army’s Joint Chief of Staff Committee chairman Gen S Samshad Mirza.

This has raised apprehensions of indoctrination of Bangladesh Army with anti-India ideology that was diluted over the years following the induction of officers born in Bangladesh and under the Awami League rule.

Pakistan trained officers continued to hold leadership positions in the Bangladesh Army for the first two decades after the country’s independence. The list included Gen Ziaur Rahman and Lt Gen HM Ershad both of whom went on to become Presidents. That exercise ensured anti-India doctrine being advocated by the Bangladesh Army till it got diluted.