Lucknow: In recent months, intelligence and media reports have raised serious concerns about a renewed trend of arming and military cooperation involving Bangladesh, allegedly facilitated by forces and networks inimical to India. Experts warn that the evolving strategic alignment of Dhaka is not just shifting regional equations, but also posing a direct challenge to India’s eastern flank, especially through the vulnerable Siliguri Corridor, the narrow land link connecting mainland India to its northeastern states. There is growing threat to Chicken neck of India developing.
At the heart of this transformation lies a renewed nexus between Bangladesh’s current regime and those in Pakistan and other external actors including Turkey. According to a recent analysis by a policy think tank, since 2024, the security environment in Bangladesh has undergone a dramatic shift: under the government of Muhammad Yunus, the influence of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan has reportedly been reasserted in Dhaka.
This resurgence is allegedly being facilitated through eased customs for Pakistani shipments, relaxed scrutiny of Pakistani nationals, and tighter military cooperation including training, intelligence exchanges, and arms procurement.
Simultaneously, Bangladesh appears to be diversifying its defence procurement sources. Recent operations by the Bangladesh Army have recovered sophisticated weapons including rifles such as AK-47 and INSAS rifle previously traced to Indian origins, but now found in the weapons cache of insurgent groups operating in Bangladesh’s remote regions. Compounding the concern, credible reports indicate that Bangladesh is attempting to revamp its military-industrial base with foreign partnerships, raising fears that weapons and technology may reach proxies or extremist outfits hostile to India.
These developments have direct security implications for India, especially along the porous international border and unstable border zones. Smuggling and illegal arms trafficking have long been a problem. In May 2025, security forces in West Bengal foiled an arms smuggling attempt near the Bangladesh border in Murshidabad district, recovering multiple firearms and ammunition. The recurrence of such incidents highlights systemic vulnerabilities in border surveillance and control, which can be exploited by witting or unwitting actors supplying weapons across the border.
Another major flashpoint remains the Siliguri Corridor – often described as the Achilles heel of India’s connectivity to the Northeast.
Strategists argue that the arming of Bangladesh by adversarial networks poses a latent threat to the security of this narrow corridor. Given the corridor’s width narrows down to roughly 20–30 km in certain stretches, even small-scale infiltration or insurgent movement can have disproportionate strategic consequences.
Indian security experts including experienced Veterans have underlined the urgency of pre-emptive action. They argue that while diplomatic engagement remains essential, India must not shy away from “hard power signalling” near the border, backed by robust intelligence coordination and enhanced surveillance. Meanwhile, there are calls for strengthening border security, ramping up deployments, and improving cooperation among intelligence and paramilitary agencies to detect and disrupt clandestine arms supply chains.
It is important to go for robust border fencing too in unfenced and vulnerable areas, improve satellite imagery in suspected regions, position drone systems near key border areas and improvise reliable domain awareness methods. For policymakers in New Delhi, the challenge is twofold: 1. To counter the emerging external alignment influencing Bangladesh’s defence posture and 2. To shore up India’s vulnerabilities along the border particularly the narrow northeastern lifeline. The reported involvement of Pakistan’s ISI, arms smuggling incidents, and Rohingya smuggling routes underlines the urgency of a calibrated yet assertive approach.
As regional politics shift and alliances evolve, the arming of Bangladesh by forces hostile to Indian interests marks a critical inflection point. If unchecked, it risks destabilising not just border areas, but the broader security architecture of South Asia. The southern part of Bangladesh opening to Bay of Bengal has to be strongly monitored by Naval assets satellites and underwater unmanned systems for any strategies playing up from there. India’s response, a combination of diplomatic, strategic, economic and operational will likely shape the region’s security contours in the years to come.
