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Many Indians would be shocked to read the headline: "Bangladesh attacked an Indian border post". An average Indian would feel "No something must be wrong in this headline!"

The question in Indian minds is "Why would Bangladesh, a country which we liberated from Pakistani tyranny, by sacrificing Indian lives have to attack India?"

And that too just for a village called Pandua on the Indo-Bangla border at Meghalaya! Yes the border is hazily defined. All the border posts are not in place. But what is the rationale for Bangladesh Rifles to attack the Indian BSF (Border Security Force) in a savage manner as to kill 16 Indian troops and take prisoner some more. Is Bangladesh at war with India?

The Bangla Elections

We can understand the compulsions of the current Bangladeshi leader Begum Sheikh Hasina Wajed (daughter of the erstwhile founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rehaman who was murdered by pro-Pakistani military men). She faces an election some months from now. And the leader of the opposition, Begum Khaleda Zia has been calling Hasina an Indian stooge. Maybe Hasina wants to have a strong case in front of the Bangladeshi voters, who these days are increasingly coming under the influence of Islamic fanatics of the Taliban variety who have struck roots amidst the Muslim Bangladeshi population.

But was it necessary to attack India in this bloody manner? We fail to understand why this happened. Maybe personally, Hasina does not like what happened at the border, and is silent as she is afraid that if she speaks up against this rash action of the Bangladesh Rifles, she will re-inforce her image as an "Indian stooge". Or worse that, she too may be gunned down by some elements of the increasingly Islamized Bangladesh Rifles (Army).

We can understand her compulsions, but we are sounding a warning note here and now - a note that may sound pre-mature today. We suspect that the increased anti-Indian pitch in Bangladeshi politics is being orchestrated by Islamic terrorist movements. We have evidence of the increased and unobtrusive involvement of Al Qaieda (the Base) movement of Osama Bin Laden in Bangladesh.

Surrounding India with Hostile Muslim states

The aim of the Islamic terrorists is to surround India from all sides by hostile Muslim fundamentalists states. Pakistan and Afghanistan are already there on the West and North of India. China is not really friendly enough with India and is still amenable to manipulation by Pakistan. Indonesia on the south-east of India beyond the Bay of Bengal is witnessing a surge of anti-Christian violence in Malaku. Indonesia is just 56 kilometers from the last Indian island in the Andamans, so it is not altogether impossible to militias of Indonesian origin trying to sneak into the string of the Indian island chain of Andamans and Nicobar. The Abu Sayyaf gang of Philippine and Indonesia based Islamic Terrorists, is tying up with the Jihadi elements and creating unrest for Indonesian President Wahid. Their next target is the volatile eastern Indian provinces of Meghalaya, Mizoram Assam and Nagaland apart from the Indo-Bangladesh border.

But so far, it was Bangladesh which was the relatively peaceful front for India. Now the picture is changing - unfortunately so.

The Recent Bangladeshi attack on Burma

A few days back Bangladeshi Army had already showed its Islamic radical fangs by attacking Burmese border guards for a similar flimsy reason. A dangerous picture is gradually beginning to emerge of Bangladesh becoming an Islamic fundamentalist threat in the backyard of India that will torment India and Burma and later on China too.

Muslim Terrorist threat to China

The threat to the Peoples Republic of China will become evident when the Islamic terrorists sponsored by Bin Laden start co-ordinating from Bangladesh, their anti-Chinese campaign which they have already started in the Kashghar/Yarkand//Urumuchi region of Xingiang province of Western China. This Chinese province has many Turkic Muslims who terrorize the Han Chinese.

So what do we make of all this? A design to surround India from all sides?

The action of the Bangladesh Rifles is not an isolated event; it is a part of the grand design of Islamic terrorists to de-stablize all non-islamic nations. In the local context of the attack on India on the Indo-Bangladesh Border, their aim is to surround India from all sides by the forces of Islamic terrorism.

What we can learn from Israel

Today we may yet laugh off this theory of India being surrounded; but look at Israel. It has been surrounded by Syria, Hezbollah (in Lebanon) the Hamas and Islamic Jihad (in Gaza and West Bank). But Israel is fighting with its back to the wall and is winning every battle in the war against the forces of theology-inspired terrorism. We in India still have to learn that!

Many will say to us; "C'mon, India is huge, really HUGE, So don't you cry wolf! What is happening in Israel cannot happen here."

Lessons for India from its own history

But let us not forget that this huge India was completely overrun by the forces of Muslim barbarism and was occupied and tyrannized for hundreds of years. And we had to fight many bloody battles led by leaders like Maharana Pratap and Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj to gradually overthrow the Muslim yoke. Let us not bring this calamity upon us once again by being callous about the Islamic threat to India.

What can we learn from the American experience while dealing with a small belligerent neighbor?

The US-Mexican War of 1846-1848

Let us draw a parallel of what a big nation can do when it is threatened by a smaller but aggressive nation. In 1846 Mexican border patrols started harassing US trading caravans passing near the border, levying unlawful taxes on them and towns near the US-Mexican border.

This is what the then US President James K. Polk, said before the beginning of this war:

"After reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American Soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced, and that the two nations are at war."

President James K. Polk, May 11, 1846

The US did not dilly dally during this war and punished the then warring Mexicans by strong military action that took the US marines to Vera Cruz and up to the Mexican capital Mexico City. The US army annexed the former Mexican states of Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming into the United States.

There was no trouble to the USA from Mexico after that. The US-Mexican war is a very old story, but is very relevant for India in today's Indo-Bangladesh encounter at Pandua. Can we Indians learn this from the Americans? Can we?? That is the question!