Indian newspaper The Morning Standard reported that India’s intelligence agencies are increasingly concerned about the potential radicalisation of “Indian students studying in Bangladesh.”

The newspaper terms this as a development that may soon “escalate into a significant security challenge.”

According to the newspaper, over 8,000 Indian medical students were enrolled in Bangladeshi colleges during the tumultuous political crisis of 2024 that led to the toppling of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The report notes that radical organisations, especially Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and its student wing, Chatra Shibir, have regained operational presence on campuses following Hasina’s removal.

These groups are said to hold sway over “student hostels, religious clusters, and weekend activity circles” in areas such as Faridpur, Mirpur and Uttara– creating ideological entry points for students from India and Nepal.

A senior intelligence official told The Morning Standard that this “campus infiltration has been strategic and systematic.”

The newspaper adds that smaller ishtima-style congregations, drawing an estimated 23 lakh youths annually, have become informal recruitment grounds.

These gatherings frequently include Indian and other foreign students, who are reportedly drawn in with social-friendly overtures and “financial concessions” offered by radical groups.

Intelligence sources quoted in the report say that recruiters linked to Jamaat and Tablighi derivatives are using these platforms to quietly shape perceptions, while ISI handlers have renewed communication lines with sympathetic clerics.

Anti-India narratives, they claim, are being spread through scholarship schemes, doctrinal programmes, and encrypted social networks.

Online extremist efforts–including those by the JMB and IS-Bangla–have reportedly intensified on Telegram channels and related secure platforms following Hasina’s fall.

The Morning Standard contextualises this within Bangladesh’s “political breakdown” of last year’s uprising when student protests over quotas escalated into a nationwide uprising that overwhelmed security forces and culminated in Hasina fleeing Dhaka via military helicopter, ending her 15-year rule.

Subsequently, a Bangladesh tribunal sentenced Hasina to death for crimes against humanity–a ruling which the newspaper said Hasina “denounced” from hiding in India, insisting the judgement was delivered by a “rigged tribunal” formed by an unelected interim authority.

Dhaka’s persistent demand for her extradition has fuelled diplomatic strain, even as New Delhi maintains official restraint, said the newspaper.

The report said that India–Bangladesh relations remain structurally stable at a state level, but the convergence of political turbulence in Bangladesh with growing radical activity on campuses has triggered heightened vigilance within India’s security community.

Conversations between Indian and Bangladeshi agencies are said to be active “behind the scenes,” focused specifically on preventing ideological indoctrination of Indian nationals abroad and ensuring they do not return home as vehicles of radicalisation.

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