Bangladesh is standing at the edge of a dangerous cliff. Reports that at least three divisions of the Bangladesh Army, the 10th, 17th, and 24th, are being positioned to support a clandestine, U.S.-backed coalition inside Myanmar’s Rakhine State should raise serious alarm. Though these units are reportedly not engaging in combat, their involvement in logistics and supply support for insurgent groups such as the Arakan Army and the Chin National Front marks a sharp and troubling shift in Dhaka’s foreign and military policy.
If history is any guide, this is a perilous road. It is the same path Pakistan followed in the 1980s under American influence. At that time, Islamabad’s involvement in the U.S.-backed mujahideen war in Afghanistan helped destabilize the region and hollowed out Pakistan from within. Today, that country is still paying the price in the form of extremism, internal conflict, and weakened democratic institutions. Bangladesh must not repeat this historic mistake.
The facts are clear. The Bangladesh Army is constructing a large supply and logistics facility near Teknaf, close to the Myanmar border, to deliver support to ethnic insurgent groups. The expansion of Cox’s Bazar airport is nearly complete and is expected to host Turkish drones, advanced military equipment that signals the operation is far more than a humanitarian mission. At the same time, leaders from the Arakan Army and Chin National Front have been secretly brought into the country for meetings with U.S. officials. These are not defensive arrangements. They are signs of a creeping proxy war, one that risks dragging Bangladesh into a volatile foreign conflict.
More troubling is the absence of civilian oversight. These military decisions are being made behind closed doors by senior officers and the newly appointed National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman. There has been no discussion in Parliament, no disclosure to the public, and no democratic approval. Bangladesh currently does not have an elected government. Yet decisions are being made that could alter the nation’s foreign policy and security posture for years to come.
The proposed plan also includes a conditional repatriation of 80,000 Rohingya to Rakhine, dependent on military outcomes. But military success in Myanmar is far from assured. The ruling junta retains control over key regions. The coalition forming against it is composed of ethnic groups with competing goals. Including the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a former adversary of the Arakan Army, only deepens the instability. Building a post-conflict political order through covert deals and armed factions is not a strategy. It is a recipe for further chaos.
There is also the broader strategic concern. High-level meetings between U.S. and Bangladeshi military officials, including a recent visit by Lt. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell, show how Washington is shaping this effort. Bangladesh now risks becoming a tool in a foreign agenda, one that could ultimately leave it isolated, overextended, and internally divided.
This is not only a question of foreign policy. It is a matter of democratic accountability. Deploying military divisions, opening airbases for drone operations, and supporting insurgent forces across a sovereign border are not decisions to be made by generals or appointed advisers. They must be debated and decided in Parliament, by representatives elected by the people.
Bangladesh has always strived for peace, diplomacy, and nonintervention. That legacy is now under threat. We must not allow our nation to be pulled into a conflict that is not ours, and certainly not in the absence of democratic legitimacy. The lessons of history are plain to see. It is not too late to change course.