During Sheikh Hasina’s recent Delhi visit, a significant development took place that might throw Bangladesh’s national security under the proverbial bus.

Dhaka, in principle, has agreed to the Indian Railways’ proposal of using rail transit through Bangladesh. If it becomes functional, Indian trains will run between Sealdah and Haldibari of West Bengal through Bangladesh. This is an unprecedented measure as, at no point in Bangladesh’s history, has a transit of this kind been given to a foreign entity.

A report published by The Times of India on Sunday confirms Indian intentions. The plan is to connect India’s restive northeastern states with the rest of the country. These provinces, known as the seven sisters, can be called an exclave as they are connected to the mainland through a narrow 22km-wide strip of land that is sandwiched between Bangladesh and Nepal.

Currently, Bangladesh Railway is connected to the Indian Railway network at five operational interchange points. But no Indian train passes through Bangladesh’s sovereign land.

Giving train transit to India is alarming on many counts. We still do not know if these trains will transport only civilian goods. There is a risk that India will ship military personnel and hardware through Bangladesh. This will put Bangladesh at loggerheads with China, especially in a region close to Doklam where China and India fought hand-to-hand combat not long ago.

Should a war break out between China and India, these trains carrying military hardware will become legitimate targets. Not only that, but it will also force Bangladesh to get embroiled in a conflict that is hardly related to its national security. China-India skirmishes are not Bangladesh’s headache; they have never been so and they should not be made into one in the future.

Giving rail transit will witness the end of Bangladesh’s geopolitical neutrality, and the country will be seen as a military-strategic ally of India. This will not bode well for Dhaka’s future partnership with Beijing. In simple terms, Bangladesh will be seen as taking sides with Delhi in the ongoing geo-strategic tussle that is fought on many fronts between India and China.

Not only that, but giving train transit to India in a volatile and restive region is not a good idea at all. Not long ago, in 1931, Japan launched a false flag operation in Mukden, north-central China. On September 18, 1931, Japanese Army Lieutenant Suemori Kawamoto detonated some dynamite close to the Japan-owned South Manchuria Railway. The idea was to blame Chinese dissidents who were fighting the Japanese Army. Japan used this as an excuse to make a full invasion and the eventual Japanese occupation of Manchuria that established a Japanese puppet state in the region.

Apart from this kind of risk, it is not understandable why Bangladesh would want to give India such benefits while Indian security forces routinely kill ordinary Bangladeshis on its border. These are crimes against humanity. Crossing the border illegally is not punishable by death in the eyes of the law of any civilized society. These incidents have become so rampant that they have even grabbed the attention of international human rights organizations. They are widely published and India, at the height of its arrogance, does not even care to apologize for carrying out these murders.

Not only that, but Indian ruling party’s prominent politicians regularly belittle Bangladeshis and use inhumane metaphors to describe them. Only six years ago, in an election rally, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah called the so-called illegal Bangladeshis ‘terrorists’ and ‘termites’. Racist and xenophobic as his comments are, the irony, however, does not escape us—thousands of Indians illegally work in Bangladesh on visit visas in the country’s burgeoning industrial sector. This has given birth to brewing social tension in Bangladesh where the local graduates see their jobs robbed by illegal Indian immigrants.

To make matters sad to tragic, India is the country that has been forever dilly-dallying when it comes to signing the Teesta Treaty. India’s big-brotherly attitude has led to protests and discontent in Bangladesh. A Boycott India Movement is thought to be gaining momentum. In view of this situation, why Dhaka has agreed to the train transit proposal is befuddling to many.

The Awami League government should move away from this disastrous decision. Bangladesh’s national security is not up for sale.

M Hliang is a Burmese-born Bangladeshi human rights activist.