Bangladesh’s threats to cut NE off cannot be tolerated: Assam CM

GUWAHATI

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Tuesday (December 16, 2025), said New Delhi would not remain silent for long if leaders in Bangladesh continue to threaten to cut off the northeastern region from India’s mainland.

He said repeated calls to take over the northeast after severing the region from India reflected a “bad mindset” in Bangladesh.

“There have been statements from Bangladesh for a year, calling for a merger of the northeast with that country. It is wrong for Bangladesh to even imagine this,” the Chief Minister told journalists.

Pointing out that India is a large country, a nuclear nation, and the world’s fourth largest economy, he said the people of Bangladesh have a bad mindset. “We should not help the country and let them know that we will not remain silent if such behaviour is directed at India,” he said.

The Chief Minister’s reaction came a day after Hasnat Abdullah, a leader of Bangladesh’s newly formed National Citizen Party, said India’s northeastern region, comprising eight States, should be isolated.

“I want to tell Bharat that if you keep sheltering those who do not believe in the sovereignty of our country and human rights, we will shelter the separatists of India and cut the northeast off,” he warned.

He accused India of funding and arming the patrons of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to rise against the current Bangladesh regime.

Mr. Abdullah is not the first to issue such a threat. Earlier this year, the Chief Adviser of the country’s interim government, Mohammed Yunus, said, “The seven States of India in its eastern part are a land-locked region. They have no way to reach out to the ocean. We are the only guardians of the ocean.”

Later, the threat from Bangladeshi leaders shifted to the “chicken’s neck”, a 22-35 km wide patch in West Bengal’s Siliguri connecting the northeast with the rest of India.

The Assam Chief Minister said Bangladesh should focus on its two “vulnerable” chicken’s necks before threatening India. The first of these runs 80 km through Bangladesh from Dakhin Dinajpur in West Bengal to South West Garo Hills in Meghalaya, and the second is the 28 km Chittagong Corridor from South Tripura till the Bay of Bengal.