South Asia in February 2026: the most important developments in security
South Asia in February 2026 saw a high-profile arrest in Sri Lanka and a series of security incidents in Bangladesh. On 25 February a former intelligence chief in Sri Lanka was arrested on accusations of aiding the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings. On 28 February Sri Lanka suspended all flights to the Middle East, while India launched a floating dry dock for the Sri Lankan Navy. In Bangladesh, joint forces arrested five people and recovered arms and narcotics in Dhaka raids in early February. A Hindu trader was hacked to death in his shop in Mymensingh, a mob dragged a man from a police station and set him on fire, and a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was shot and wounded in Dhaka. A gas cylinder explosion in a Chittagong building injured nine people, and the death toll later reached six.
Action against scam operations in mainland Southeast Asia continued through the month. China executed four leading members of a Myanmar-based criminal gang and later announced death sentences for 16 members of the Ming and Bai gangs, while suspects from a Myanmar telecom fraud operation were repatriated to China. Cambodia said it had closed nearly 200 scam centers and detained about 800 people, vowed to dismantle phone scam operations by April, and detained 15 Japanese nationals in Phnom Penh over alleged visa fraud. Cambodia's Prime Minister said the scam centers were harming the national economy. Indonesia plans to repatriate nearly 3,600 citizens from Cambodia.
On the Thai-Cambodian border, Thai media reported a grenade fired from Cambodia into Sa Kaeo province in early February. On 24 February troops exchanged fire after a grenade was fired into Si Sa Ket province; Thailand said the incident occurred and Cambodia denied any ceasefire violation. No injuries were reported.
Elsewhere, Indonesia prepared up to 8,000 troops, later 1,000, for a possible Gaza peacekeeping force, with deployment possible in early April. Thailand and the United States began the Cobra Gold exercise. Singapore stepped up checkpoint security after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
Click a day in the chart above for that day's brief.