NEW DELHI: The disclosure by a senior adviser to the Muhammad Yunus government in Bangladesh clearly suggests that the first phase to set up the Islamic Revolutionary Army (IRA) is underway. On October 20, Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, an adviser to the interim government, said on social media that recruitment and training were being imparted to 8, 850 individuals across several centres.
He said that these individuals would undergo training in martial arts, firearms instruction, taekwondo and judo. This revelation confirms what the Indian agencies have been saying for a couple of months.
The Yunus government, labelled as a puppet of the Jamaat-e-Islami and ISI, has been planning the IRA for several months now. The idea is to replace the existing army with the IRA. The IRA, according to Indian officials, would be on the lines with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).