For long Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been dealing with the unabated flow of illegal migrants from Pakistan. Now, quite expectedly, they've got a new headache — Pakistani terrorists in their country.
A recent drive by Bosnia’s Ministry of Security to deport more than 3,000 illegal migrants from Pakistan — most of them using it as a backdoor to sneak into the European Union (EU) — led them to uncover two terrorists after detailed fingerprint analysis, a <a href="http://ba.n1info.com/English/NEWS/a428282/Bosnia-uncovered-two-terrorists-among-the-migrants.html">report</a> said in April.
Further investigations, initiated by Security Minister Fahrudin Radoncic, revealed Islamabad's role in fraudulently transporting people and terror to Sarajevo, en route to Croatia and then deep into Europe.
Their plan exposed, the Embassy of Pakistan in Sarajevo mounted a counter-offensive, with Ambassador Muhammad Khalid Rao — who had <a href="https://balkaneu.com/rao-pakistani-migrants-do-not-want-to-return/">earlier</a> said that these people are "economic migrants" who came to BiH after paying "thousands of dollars to smugglers" and “do not want to return” to Pakistan — refusing to cooperate.
Radoncic publicly stated that he would not argue with the ambassadors "who are willing to act fraudulently" against the BiH citizens and even went on to say that the Ambassador of Pakistan could be declared persona non grata unless he cooperates with Bosnian authorities.
However, after exchanging many verbal blows with Rao, it was Radoncic who had to back out. With Bisera Turkovic, the Foreign Minister, and Sefik Dzaferovic, the president for the Bosniak part of the country, openly backing Pakistan, the Security Minister finally resigned on June 2 citing "a difference in opinion" in the ruling coalition with regard to resolving the migrant problem.
<img class="wp-image-3087 size-full" src="https://indianarrative.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/9a6381d3ec7be78639f2e7ccca583cb5-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1707" /> Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (1st L) shakes hands with member of Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH's) Presidency Zeljko Komsic (2nd R), in the presence of Chairman of BiH's Presidency Milorad Dodik (2nd L) and member of BiH's Presidency Sefik Dzaferovic (1st R) in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on July 8, 2019 (Xinhua/Nedim Grabovica/IANS)"In April, he [Radoncic] accused Pakistan’s ambassador to Sarajevo of refusing to cooperate with the Bosnian authorities in establishing the identities of migrants coming from Pakistan. But when the Bosniak member of the Bosnian tripartite presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, and Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic met the ambassador, they condemned Radoncic for suggesting that the ambassador could be declared persona non grata unless he cooperated more closely," <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2020/04/27/bosnia-pakistan-trade-barbs-over-plan-to-deport-migrants/">reported</a> Balkan Insight after the minister's resignation.
The role Pakistan – and its notorious Inter-Services Intelligence or the ISI – played in the 1990s to separate Bosnia-Herzegovina from Yugoslavia is well-documented. The Bosnians are still repaying a favor which could be a recipe for disaster.
French President Emmanuel Macron had last year described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a "ticking time-bomb" after reports of many Islamic State fighters returning to Europe from the Balkan route. "If you're concerned about this region, the first question is neither Macedonia, nor Albania, it's Bosnia-Herzegovina. The time-bomb that's ticking right next to (the EU member) Croatia, and which faces the problem of returning jihadists," Macron had said.
Bosnia though, as the recent episode has suggested, isn't worried at all..
