Bangladesh has become a crucial element in Pakistan’s hybrid warfare strategy, with intelligence reports revealing that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is collaborating with notorious underworld figure Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company to establish drug trafficking networks and terrorist training facilities within Bangladesh.

Following the 2024 political transition in Dhaka that brought Muhammad Yunus’s interim administration to power, Islamabad has intensified efforts to convert Bangladesh into a launchpad for operations against India and to fund global jihadist proxies. The long-standing partnership between ISI and Dawood Ibrahim, dating back to Pakistan’s “narco-jihad” era under General Zia-ul-Haq, continues to merge drug profits with covert activities.

Recent developments show D-Company, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, now redirecting Afghan heroin, methamphetamine, and synthetic drugs through Bangladeshi ports after Indian authorities disrupted traditional smuggling routes. A significant October 2025 seizure at Chittagong Port uncovered 25 tons of narcotics-grade poppy seeds hidden in a Pakistani shipment labeled as bird feed, using sophisticated concealment techniques associated with ISI operations.

Policy changes under the current Dhaka government have enabled this infiltration, including exemptions for Pakistani cargo from mandatory inspections and relaxed security clearances for Pakistani nationals. Intelligence sources indicate D-Company is establishing operational bases in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar, laundering money through real estate and informal hawala networks while forming alliances with Myanmar-based drug syndicates.

Beyond narcotics trafficking, Pakistan is utilizing Bangladeshi territory for direct anti-India operations. ISI handlers, including former Pakistan Army commandos, are training over 125 recruits—comprising Rohingya youths and members of Ansarullah Bangla Team and Hizb-ut-Tahrir—at remote camps in Bandarban, Brahmanbaria, and Sylhet districts. Training includes IED manufacturing, guerrilla warfare, and border infiltration techniques, with camps strategically located near unprotected sections of India’s northeastern border.

The ISI has also unified various Rohingya militant groups into a “Four Brothers’ Alliance,” providing weapons and explosives while redirecting fighters toward Indian targets through Al-Qaeda connections. Simultaneously, Urdu-speaking Biharis in “Stranded Pakistani” camps are being organized into a militia group called the “Mohajir Regiment” for espionage and subversion activities.

These operations align with Pakistan’s broader strategy of encircling India through proxy warfare, flooding northeastern India with drugs and insurgents, and undermining Bangladesh’s secular framework to install a compliant, Islamist-oriented government. By transferring high-risk drug operations to Bangladesh, Pakistan also avoids international financial scrutiny while generating billions to fund terrorist activities.

Regional security experts warn that without coordinated countermeasures, Bangladesh faces the permanent risk of becoming South Asia’s central hub for narco-terrorism, posing direct threats to India’s internal stability and maritime security in the Bay of Bengal.