‘If India attacks Pakistan, Bangladesh should occupy northeastern states…’: Yunus’ aide makes shocking remark

A former Bangladesh army officer and a close aide of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus suggested that Dhaka should collaborate with China to occupy India’s northeastern states if it attacks Pakistan.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have worsened after a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam district killed 26 civilians on April 22.

In a Facebook post, Major General (Retd) ALM Fazlur Rahman on Tuesday wrote that Bangladesh should occupy all northeastern states of India. “If India attacks Pakistan, then Bangladesh should occupy all northeastern states,” he wrote in Bengali.

Suggesting taking China’s help, he went on to say, “I think Bangladesh should talk to China about a joint military decision regarding this.”

Yunus government distances itself from Rahman’s remarks

Yunus’s interim government was quick to distance itself from Rahman’s remarks. A Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs media release on Friday said, “The comments do not reflect the position or policies of the government of Bangladesh, and as such, the government neither endorses nor supports such rhetoric in any form or manner.”

The government urged all concerned to refrain from associating the state with the personal views expressed by Rahman, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.

Bangladesh remains firmly committed to the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, mutual respect, and the peaceful coexistence of all nations, the ministry said, according to a PTI report. 

Rahman was appointed by the Yunus-led interim government in December 2024 as the chairman of the National Independent Commission assigned to investigate the killings in the Bangladesh Rifles revolt of 2009, the report added.

Yunus’ earlier remark on India’s northeastern states

Earlier in March, Chief Adviser Yunus, during his visit to China, had claimed that Bangladesh is the “only guardian” of the Indian Ocean for the region, as the seven northeastern Indian states are “landlocked”.

In a video that went viral, Yunus can be heard saying that “The seven states of India, the eastern part of India, are called the seven sisters. They are a landlocked region of India. They have no way to reach out to the ocean. Bangladesh is the guardian of the ocean for the region. This opens up a huge possibility. This could be an extension for the Chinese economy.”

External Affairs Minister (EAM) Jaishankar had strongly countered Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus over his ‘Northeast landlocked’ and ‘Bangladesh only guardian of the ocean’ remark during his visit to China, stating that “cooperation is not about cherry-picking.”

In a statement, Jaishankar said, “We, after all, have the longest coastline in the Bay of Bengal, of almost 6,500 km. India shares borders not only with five BIMSTEC members, connects most of them, but also provides much of the interface between the Indian sub-continent and ASEAN. Our North-Eastern region in particular is emerging as a connectivity hub for the BIMSTEC, with a myriad network of roads, railways, waterways, grids and pipelines.”