SILIGURI, Oct 30 ? Growth of fundamentalist elements including Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) backed armed outfits in neighbouring Bangladesh may pose a serious security threat to India, particularly in the North Eastern region in the days to come and to add to the problem, most of the militant outfits based in NE have their bases in the neighbouring country.
Highly placed security sources told The Assam Tribune here that in recent years, Bangladesh witnessed growth of fundamentalist elements spreading anti-India feelings and the Pakistani agency has taken advantage of the situation to extend its helping hand to the newly formed armed groups in that country.
Sources said that according to information available with the Indian security agencies, several armed groups have established their roots in the neighbouring country, which include Hikmat ul Jehad, Hizbul Mujahideen, Sahadat ul Hikma etc, while, after the United States operations in Afghanistan, the dreaded Al Qaeda has also started establishing its bases in Bangladesh.
The main aim of all these groups is to spread Islamic fundamentalism in the entire area and it is apprehended that the immediate target of these groups, which have the backing of the ISI, would be to spread its wings to the North Eastern region of India.
To add to the disturbing trend, overground fundamentalist groups in the neighbouring country have also started to spit anti-India venom in their meetings. According to information available with the security agencies, groups like the Islamic Aikya Jote, Jamat E Islam and Islamic Chatra Sibir have also started to make strong anti-India statements in its public meetings and the leaders of these organisations always refer to Gujarat riots, Kashmir issue and the demolition of the Babri Masjid to generate anti- India feelings among the common masses.
The ruling party in Bangladesh is also keeping a close link with the fundamentalist organisations and of late, the persons maintaining pro-India stand have come under attack. Even the former Bangladesh Prime Minister came under attack on several occasions because she was close to India, sources pointed out.
Sources said that as most of the militant outfits of North East including the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) have their bases in Bangladesh, it is believed that they have also established links with the newly formed outfits in Bangladesh and the reason for the apprehension is that as the NE militants and the Bangladeshi outfits both have the backing of the ISI, it is common perception that sooner or later all the groups must establish some kind of contact.
Sources also pointed out that the presence of a sizeable population of immigrants from Bangladesh in Assam would provide the fundamentalist militant groups a fertile ground to extend their wings in the State and that resulted in the growth of outfits like the MULTA and MULFA in Assam.
The porous border between Assam and Bangladesh also aggravated the problem as along with the illegal immigrants, fundamentalist elements can also sneak into India to create disturbance and the immediate need of the hour is to deploy more forces along the international boundary and to complete the border fencing to check the movement of illegal migrants and militant elements.
Security sources also said that so far the Government of Bangladesh has not taken any step to evict the NE militants camping in that country and in fact, despite repeated requests by India, the Bangla Government has been denying the very presence of the Indian militant leaders in their country.
Sources said that the Bangladeshi Government is perhaps not keen on annoying the fundamentalist groups and anti-India forces by taking a strong action against the militant groups and moreover, the militants are not creating any problem for Bangladesh so far to warrant immediate action.
It was not the case in Bhutan as the Government of Bhutan was forced to take action against NE militant groups after they started creating problems for the Himalayan Kingdom and even started defying the Government, sources pointed out.