ISI's Dhaka Cell Plots Bangladesh Chaos, Eyes West Bengal and Northeast India

AGENCIES, NEW DELHI, DEC 20, 2025: The involvement of the Dhaka Cell, a unit created by the ISI in Bangladesh, has emerged following the huge violence that broke out in the country this week. The Dhaka Cell was created within the Pakistan High Commission specifically to oversee the grooming of terrorists and radicals in Bangladesh. The larger intention, however, is India-specific.

The Dhaka Cell is not an ordinary unit, says an Intelligence Bureau official. The cell was created a couple of months ago, following the visit to Dhaka by Pakistan's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza. Indian agencies have learned that the unrest in Bangladesh, following the staged murder of student leader Sharif Osman Hadi, was orchestrated by the Dhaka Cell.

It has also been learned that the Dhaka Cell, since its creation in October, has been planning unrest on a very large scale. It was waiting for the right timing to stage the violence, and the plan was set in motion the moment it became clear that the elections would be held in February 2026, an official added.

The Dhaka Cell is similar to the one that the ISI had created in Sri Lanka. The cell in Sri Lanka operated from the Pakistan High Commission, and its intention was to create terror modules in South India. It had also set the prices in motion with many terror operatives conducting reconnaissance in Chennai and other places. However, this module was busted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2014.

The cell in Bangladesh comprises officers from the Pakistan armed forces. They include a brigadier, a colonel, and four majors, apart from officers from the Pakistan Air Force and Navy. An official said that the cell was created to undertake a long-pending plan of the Pakistan establishment. Ever since Sheikh Hasina was ousted and the Muhammad Yunus caretaker government took over, the ISI began plotting the return of a pre-1971 Bangladesh.