Jamaat's Border Wins Alarm Delhi: New Security Risks Emerge

• Jamaat-e-Islami swept all four parliamentary seats in Satkhira, a district bordering India's West Bengal, and secured wins in other India-facing constituencies in Bangladesh's 2026 general election.
• These victories alter the local political map along a sensitive frontier, raising concerns for India due to the 4,096-km shared border, vulnerable to smuggling, illegal migration, and extremist infiltration.
• Indian intelligence suggests Jamaat's border gains are rooted in rural networks, potentially leading to pressure on Hindu minorities and a permissive ecosystem for radicalization, rather than large-scale attacks.
• The risk is seen as 'selective infiltration' by trained ideologues and fund couriers, harder to detect but with potentially higher impact, leveraging pathways like Friday sermons, madrassa curricula, and cross-border marriages.
• Despite historical allegations of links to Pakistan's ISI and Jamaat's 1971 role, a recent ban was revoked due to lack of evidence of terrorist involvement, but India questions if security cooperation will remain consistent under the new BNP government.