While a higher volume of trade through Petrapole should benefit both countries, this new ICP mechanism needs to be suitably leveraged to ensure that the north-east also derives benefits.
India must avoid policy incoherence and inconsistency on PoK that has spanned decades, and navigate a course that helps reshape the domestic as well as external discourses on PoK and pursue Indian claims in a firm, consistent manner.
The political reality in PoK is that ‘azadi’ is a chimera, and substantive control of the area is shared between terrorist organisations such as the LeT and HM and the political elite of Islamabad. However, a narrative has been fed in the Kashmir Valley that Pakistan is a more favourable option than India.
Bangladesh-based terror groups acting against India is not new. What is new is a Bangladeshi terror group based in India acting against both India and Bangladesh. Needless to say, robust counterterrorism cooperation between India and Bangladesh is imperative to tackling common enemies like JMB.
The sensational attack in the Dhaka café may have been intended to either cause international opinion to put pressure on the Hasina government to go for early election or incite the Army to take over political power.
A comprehensive approach is needed to deal with the problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh. All the affected states would have to adopt a uniform policy, in the absence of which any amount of effort is bound to deliver only partial results.
There is no documentary evidence to substantiate the Pakistani claim that Pakistan had entered into any voluntary safeguards agreement with the IAEA in respect of KANUPP.
Message from the Indo-Bangladesh Border: `Banijya Basati Lakkhi’
While a higher volume of trade through Petrapole should benefit both countries, this new ICP mechanism needs to be suitably leveraged to ensure that the north-east also derives benefits.