AIDS Threat to Bangladesh from India

[Guest guest]

AIDS Threat to Bangladesh from India

Mohammad Zainal Abedin - 10/24/2005

Indian demand for corridor, under the guise of transit must be

thwarted to keep it free from HIV/AIDS, as it will spread the menace

in the country rapidly. India is now the largest AIDs and HIV

contaminated country in the world. According to Feacham, Executive

Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,

India has outstripped South Africa and has more people living with

AIDS than any other country. Being the second largest populous

country in the world, it will not be strange if India have already

outstripped South Africa. While UNAIDS puts the Indian figure at 5.1

million, Feacham said that, with the speed at which the disease was

spreading, the figure in India must by now exceed the South African

figure of 5.3 million. Feacham suspected that the figure in India

might already have crossed 1 per cent of the population and what

really set the alarm bells ringing, as WHO, UNAIDS and Indian

Council of Medical Research, some experts put the figure at 8

million (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-

1105489,prtpage-1.cms).

On the other hand the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has forecast

the number of people with HIV/AIDS in India could touch 20 million

by 2010.

The rapid spreads of the menace among the Indian security forces,

particularly deployed in the India's Northeastern states having

common borders with Bangladesh, indicates how seriously the disease

is spreading in India, which poses serious threat to Bangladesh.

Indian security forces, particularly, Assam Rifles, officially

admitted the presence of HIV/AIDS virus among many of its jawans.

Sensing the imminent danger, Indian Defence authorities have asked

soldiers battling violent separatist insurgencies in India's

troubled northeast to carry condoms to prevent contracting HIV, the

virus that causes AIDS.

Assam Rifles jawans top in the list to have endured with AIDS/ HIV

while among the three defence forces Army jawans rank highest to

have contacted with this dreaded diseases, said Director General of

Armed Forces Medical Services (DGFAMS), V.K. Singh.Assam Rifles

Chief, Lieutenant General Bhopinder Singh revealed that 141 of his

jawans have been tested AIDS/HIV positive and presently are

undergoing medical treatment while 32 others have died

(http://northeasttribune.com/4805.htm).

As a preventive measure, on the other hand, India's President A J

Abdul Kalam said all new recruits to the country's armed forces

would be tested for the HIV virus after the deaths of some 200

soldiers due to AIDS in the past two years.

" The military will be testing for HIV in new recruits and undertake

pre-natal examination of wives of personnel in the services, "

President Abdul Kalam said recently at an army seminar in Shillong

in India's restive northeast where thousands of troops are posted

to " fight separatist rebels. " Officials said the HIV testing would

start this October.

" HIV/AIDS has become a security threat to India , " Lieutenant-

General Bhupinder Singh told the seminar. " AIDS is no less

destructive than war itself. We want to keep our force fighting

fit. " Government records show more than 300 soldiers are currently

infected with the HIV virus

(http://in.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?

type=topNews & storyID=2005-09-24T130634Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-

217221-1.xml).

To avert the disease, Vice Admiral V.K. Singh, Director General of

the Armed Forces Medical Services, told soldiers at an army

cantonment in the Meghalaya state capital Shillong to use condom

during extra-marital sexual intercourses. " We have instructed our

men to carry stocks of condoms to prevent contracting HIV-AIDS while

working in vulnerable areas, " he acknowledged.

The directive to carry condoms comes after army and paramilitary

authorities in the northeast confirmed that scores of soldiers

deployed in the region were struck by HIV, with promiscuous sex

being the main reason for contracting the deadly virus.

The paramilitary Assam Rifles was the first to officially

acknowledge the presence of a large number of soldiers afflicted

with HIV-AIDS, although other army and paramilitary units in the

Northeast are yet to come up with a formal

assessment

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1215228.cms).

The instruction for precautionary measures and warning from the head

of the state did not come without sufficient reason. But they

deliberately bypassed one reason of taking so much precautionary

measures, including testing the wives of the jawans. The most

serious reason was the threat of the Northeast rebels. The Times of

India in a despatch on September 26, 2005, said, " Insurgent groups

in the Northeast are now threatening to use a new weapon against

India's security forces. "

The Assam Rifles has received threats from the militants that they

would let loose HIV infected women to spread the disease among

jawans posted in the region. The DG of Assam Rifles, Lt. Gen.

Bhoopinder Singh acknowledged that they received threats from the

insurgent groups fighting to secede their regions from India. " The

insurgent groups will unleash women infected with HIV to spread the

disease among our jawans as a way to neutralising the security

forces. . Criminals groups are also trying to infect gullible young

girls of this region with the virus in order to leave a trail of HIV

in the region. "

The Additional Project Director of National Aids Control

Organisation (NACO) N S Dharmashaktu informed, " Insurgent groups are

now trying new, less expensive ways to attack our forces. Biological

warfare has become a reality. AIDS can be quite a deadly weapon. It

does not need money, sophisticated weapons and manpower. All they

have to do is infect young hapless girls of the region with AIDS and

let them inflect our security forcers with the disease. "

The precautionary measures taken by the concerned Indian authorities

indicate that AIDS emerges as such a menace for Assam Rifles that it

has already claimed the lives of 40 Assam Rifles jawans, while 139

other are lying infected. Assam Rifles is spending Rs. 2 crore

annually on the caretaking programmme of the inflected jawans. It

has established a three-tier HIV/AIDS control faciltieis in the

regin. An AIDS centre at CPAR Hospital at Sukhoi is being set up.

Over 40 treatment detection centres have also been established. It

is also upgrading 30-bed existing unit to 50-bed nodal centres in

Shilong of Meghalaya. Over 275 testing and reporting centres have

also been built at all company posts where the samples will be

collected. Knowledgeable sources believe that the situation in other

branches of Indian security services are equally dangerous, which

are kept hidden under the blanket of secrecy. Indian authorities for

obvious reason do not disclose the deteriorating health situation in

the Armed Forces. The comments of several officials, even the

suggestion of the President, to test the jawans before their recruit

and even their wives unveils the gravity of AIDS menace in the Armed

Forces and the common people as well.

This also reveals the truth that Indian soldiers are morally

bankrupt and India officially allows them to be bankrupt through

commiting such immoral and illegal act of sexual relations. If the

jawans are officially allowed to have illegal sexual transactions,

the wives of these jawans will automatically indulge in same immoral

acts with their boyfriends. The process will automatically lead

India to a greater Bothell

Sex is now a booming industry in India. India now earns crores of

rupees every by selling the flesh of its girls and young women.

People of different age group from several countries particularly

from Bangladesh and Middle Eastern countries throng India to buy

sex. As a result, HIV and AIDS virus spread in India in an

alarmingly way.

Security forces of any country, are to maintain generally restricted

and regulated life. If the position of the Indian security forces is

so serious the condition of the common people is more dangerous. The

disease surely has spread among the common people more horribly. So

being a neighbouring country Bangladesh faces a serious threat to

HIV/AIDS virus. It can spread in Bangladesh in various ways. Indian

truck drivers, helpers and labourers who illegally enter and stay

inside Bangladesh territory near the land ports exchange sex with

the local prostitutes.

About 2,000 Indian trucks enter Bangladesh daily. If even a

microscopic number these Indian truckers, are infected with HIV or

AIDS virus, it will surely spread in Bangladesh.

The disease can also spread in Bangladesh through the Indian

businessmen and tourists and illegal Indians, who frequently enter

Bangladesh. Indians can enter Bangladesh from three sides and all

the states neighbouring Bangladesh have strong presence of HIV/AIDS.

Preventive measures should be taken immediately. Number of truckers,

businessmen, tourists and illegal Indians must be restricted

immediately.

Illegal intrusion should be stopped at any cost. Law enforcers

should remain vigil to deter the entrance of the illegal Indians.

Bangladesh missions in India must seek health certificates from the

Indians before issuing visa.

HIV/AIDS virus testing machines, if possible, in all the entry point

of Bangladesh to avert the spread of the disease.

Under this situation, if transit is given to India, Bangladesh will

not be able to get rid of the menace of HIV/AIDS virus. So the

pressure of providing corridor to India in the name of transit must

be thwarted not only for economic and military reasons, but also

keep Bangladesh free of the AIDS threat from India.

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