GUWAHATI, April 5 — Growing activities of the Islamic militant groups in the neighbouring country Bangladesh are posing a serious security threat to the north-eastern region of India, particularly because of the porous Indo-Bangla border. According to a report prepared by the security agencies on the disturbing phenomenon, nine such groups met recently to form the Bangladesh Islamic Manch under the leadership of the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HUJI). So far the Manch’s activities are restricted to circulating speeches of Osama bin Laden and Maulana Masood Azhar, a Pakistani terrorist leader, to brainwash the people. But the ultimate aim of the group is to include Muslim-dominated areas of Assam, West Bengal and Myanmar’s Arakan province in Bangladesh. According to the report, leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) also attended meeting with representatives of nine Islamic fundamentalist groups in Bangladesh in May last year.
It may be mentioned here that Assam Police managed to get hold of Osama bin Laden posters distributed freely just across the border, while Karimganj police busted racket involved in distribution of audio cassettes containing anti-India speeches a few months back. Interestingly, the speeches were delivered by a ruling party Member of Parliament of Bangladesh.
The report prepared by the security agencies revealed that Southern Bhutan has now become a haven for jehadis and some of the camps located at Ukhia near Coxes Bazar can accommodate more than a couple of thousand persons at a time. Sophisticated weapons like AK series rifles, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades etc are available for training of the jehadis. The report said that one of the five signatories to bin Laden’s call for jehad against USA was Fazr-ur-Rehman of Bangladesh, who signed in the name of the jehad movement of Bangladesh. The report also gave a detailed account of the activities of HUJI and al-Qaeda in Bangladesh and revealed that a large group of al-Qaeda and Taliban activities arrived in the country in the last part of last years.
Giving an account of the ruling Bangladesh National Party (BNP) with the fundamentalist outfits, the report revealed that one of the parties of the ruling alliance, Islamic Oikya Jote (IOJ) is open about its sympathies to fundamentalist groups, Taliban and al-Qaeda. The report revealed that the IOJ has close links with the HUJI, which was formed by the Mujahideens, who returned from Afghanistan to turn the moderate country Bangladesh into a fundamentalist country. The HUJI also involved in a number of subversive activities including an attempt to the life of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The report further revealed that the Bangladesh Military Intelligence Service maintain regular contact with its counterparts in Pakistan, the Inter-Service Intelligence and has a long history of supporting anti-India forces. The Indian security agencies also alleged that the military intelligence service was also involved with helping the ULFA leaders and they were provided with safe houses in Dhaka.
The Indian security agencies, on the basis of intelligence inputs, prepared a detailed list of the camps of militants operating in North-east in the neighbouring country and the list was handed over to Bangla government for appropriate action. However, security sources alleged that so far the Bangla government has not initiated any action to evict the camps of the militants.