India Will Not Tolerate ‘Seven Sisters’ Threat: Assam CM

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday strongly reacted to remarks made by Bangladesh’s National Citizen Party (NCP) leader, Hasnat Abdullah, who warned that Dhaka could provide shelter to forces hostile to India, including separatist groups, and attempt to sever the country’s northeastern region, known as the “Seven Sisters,” from India.

Addressing a gathering in Bangladesh's Dhaka, Abdullah stated, “We will shelter separatist and anti-India forces and then we will sever the seven sisters from India.”

Notably, the “Seven Sisters” refers to Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura, of which Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram share land borders with Bangladesh.

In response, the Assam Chief Minister condemned the statement, calling it “completely misguided” and warned that India, as a nuclear-armed nation and the world’s fourth-largest economy, would not remain silent against such threats.

"For the past year, there have been discussions in Bangladesh suggesting that India’s Northeast should be separated from the country and merged with Bangladesh. Such thinking is completely wrong and one should not forget that India is a large, nuclear‑armed nation and the world’s fourth‑largest economy. It is wrong even to imagine something like this,” he said.

Sarma also warned that Bangladesh must understand that India will respond if anyone attempts to destabilize its northeastern states.

India has long expressed concerns over militant and separatist groups from the Northeast using Bangladesh as a sanctuary, transit route, or logistics base, particularly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some groups, such as the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), were reported to have maintained camps and support networks across the border.

Beyond the Northeast, Bangladesh has also at times provided shelter to Islamist extremist groups linked to India, including Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). However, the situation changed after Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2009, with her government launching a sustained crackdown on insurgent groups targeting India.

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