New Delhi, May 11 -- According to an unconfirmed report appearing in a section of the media in Bangladesh, an Air Force (BAF) Warrant Officer who went missing from a Chattogram base has been traced to a Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideout, triggering a deep internal probe into suspected extremist links within the service. This has been informally confirmed by multiple sources in security and intelligence quarters. They also disclosed that more than 20 people have been detained in the last week, including 12 combatant BAF members - two officers, several Warrant Officers and airmen - and over 10 non-combatants, including an Imam of a BAF base mosque. The development is disturbing and has led to coordinated probes follow-up across BAF installations, with officials examining whether a regular recruitment network operated inside the force for months, and whether sensitive information may have been exposed or Bangladeshi recruits sent abroad to join extremist activities.
What triggered the inquiry was the two-month absence without leave of the Warrant Officer posted at the BAF base in Chattogram, Zahurul Haque. He was later identified and arrested at a TTP hideout. However, when contacted, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director Sami Ud Dowla Chowdhury told The Times of Bangladesh that they would not offer any comments for confirmation. TTP's linkages to Bangladesh came to the surface last year after reports claimed that at least four Bangladeshis were killed by Pakistani forces. Investigators revealed that the questioning of the Warrant Officer also exposed claims that several Bangladeshis had travelled to Pakistan, joined the TTP, and actively participated in the fighting.
Preliminary findings point to possible links involving personnel across squadrons, including a unit in Cox's Bazar, though the scope of involvement remains under enquiry. Investigators are examining claims by the arrested Warrant Officer that TTP-linked recruitment efforts had been underway for months and may have involved more BAF personnel. At least six Warrant Officers previously linked to the case are suspected to have left Bangladesh for destinations including Turkey, Pakistan, New Zealand and Portugal, complicating the probe and widening its global dimension.
Apart from the disclosures made by the Warrant Officer, the authorities claim to have seized electronic devices belonging to the absconding airmen, leading to the detention of many persons. Surveillance has been intensified after indications emerged that efforts were afoot to establish a possible training facility in the Ukhia area of Cox's Bazar. Security agencies, meanwhile, are assessing risk factors, including the potential leakage of sensitive military information. Officials described the situation as one of serious internal security concerns. However, they cautioned that the investigation is ongoing and that individual culpability is yet to be established.
In a related recent development, the Police Headquarters in Dhaka issued a nationwide alert about possible militant attacks on key installations, including the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban (Parliament), public places such as Shahbagh intersection, places of worship, entertainment centres, police and army establishments, as well as armouries. Despite contradictory statements later made by Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed and Dr Zahed Ur Rahman, the Prime Minister's Adviser on Information and Broadcasting, on the existence of militancy in Bangladesh, the alert underscores that violent extremism has not yet disappeared; it has only changed form, language and platform.
A report by The Daily Star, based on court filings and intelligence findings, warns that police detected communications between alleged Neo-Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) members; and that a 16-year-old boy from Habiganj Sadar had been in regular contact with two dismissed army personnel. After the boy's arrest earlier this month, the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit seized his phone and found incriminating materials that investigators believe indicate links with Neo-JMB, as well as his presence at a secret meeting at Zia Udyan. The documents describe him as an "IS-ideology follower/Neo-JMB member." Officials claim the group used online platforms and pseudonyms, with the boy allegedly even receiving bomb-making training. If true, this is highly disturbing.
Experts say counterterrorism should not mean panic, media trial or collective suspicion of religious groups. After the recent terrorism alert, a CTTC joint commissioner was right in saying there is no reason to panic. But calm is not the same as denial. Earlier assurances from the interim government sit uneasily alongside the recent warnings, suggesting that security concerns may have been overlooked. It may be recalled that in July 2025, then Home Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury had said there was no militancy in Bangladesh. Around the same period, then DMP Commissioner Sheikh Md Sazzat Ali reportedly dismissed militancy as a current problem. They were perhaps far removed from reality.
It is important to assert that TTP, or the Pakistani Taliban, is not an ordinary political or religious group. The UN Security Council sanctions narrative identifies it as being associated with al-Qaeda. The Global Terrorism Index 2026 sees TTP as one of the four deadliest terrorist organisations globally in 2025, saying it was the only one among the four to record an increase in terrorism-related deaths. This is the organisation some Bangladeshi extremists are believed to be trying to join. Bangladesh has lived through this terror-linked development before.
According to Asif Bin Ali, a well-known columnist in The Daily Star and a geopolitical analyst and doctoral fellow at Georgia State University in the US, there is still a mistake Bangladesh must not repeat. Denial is dangerous, but politicised counterterrorism is dangerous too. For years, governments have used the language of terrorism to discredit political opponents. Social media and the public sphere also need to be reviewed. In recent years, pro-al-Qaeda, pro-ISIS, pro-Taliban and Neo-JMB-style narratives have become more visible on social media and public forums. Not every conservative religious view amounts to extremism and the state must never criminalise belief. But it must draw a clear line between religious expression and ideological preparation for violence. Bin Ali's thoughts perhaps merit attention.
Bangladesh's security and intelligence agencies need resources, training, coordination and public support. But they also need reform and accountability. The nation has reduced the visible threat of terrorism over the years, but low visibility does not mean the absence of threat. Extremism often becomes quiet, reorganises, enters new platforms and waits for political confusion. To address the extremism-related national security threat, the answer is neither blind support for security agencies nor cynical dismissal of every warning.
If the penetration of extremists into the BAF is proved correct following investigations, it will pose a new challenge to Bangladesh as well as the South Asian region. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman must take up this threat as a priority and nip it in the bud before it assumes serious proportions.
Views expressed are personal. The writer is a retired IPS officer, Adviser NatStrat, and a former National Security Advisor in Mauritius
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.