New Delhi: Indian establishments in Dhaka are receiving threat calls from terror organizations.
A fortnight back the Assistant High Commissioner's office in Rajshahi received a threat call and recently another menacing phone call was made to the Apollo hospital in Dhaka.
Apollo hospital received an e-mail on January 8 saying, "We strongly believe that you are here from India to exploit our poor people, to extract money in the name of better health services, which could be done by our own expertise and doctors through our own hospital."
The mail was signed by Abu Sayeed M M Rehman, who is a self-styled joint secretary of three Islamic fundamentalist outfits - the Jamat-ul-Mujahideen, the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and the Jagrata Muslim Janata.
The mail has asked the hospital administration to leave Bangladesh by the end of January. But the hospital's CEO Richard Larison is defying the threat.
"We took the e-mail seriously and increased security at the hospital. Then we gathered all the expatriates working at the hospital and talked to them about the e-mail. Nobody is overreacting to the e-mail. We have contacted the government to determine the source of the e-mail," Larison said.
The eight-month-old hospital may be putting up a brave front but experts have warned the organisation against the deadly potential of these terrorist outfits.
"These organisations are known to have al-Qaida links. The hospital should not take the threat lightly. They should stay put but improve their security," terror expert Maj Gen Afsar Karim said.
The 200 Indian doctors and nurses working at Apollo hospital in Dhaka take care of over 400 patients on any given day.
The fact that terrorists are targeting them is an indication of the growing anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh, even if it comes at the cost of their own infrastructural development.
Indian investments in Bangladesh have been quite high but threats like these can be damaging for trade ties.
Comments
0 comment