ISI coordinating with NE ultras in Bangla: Book

NEW DELHI, Dec 1: Describing the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka as the ?nerve centre? of ISI activities, a government publication has claimed that Pakistani intelligence officials have long been engaged in networking with and coordinating activities of north-eastern insurgent groups and Islamic extremists elements in Bangladesh, reports PTI. Besides making ?extensive inroads? into Bangladeshi organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami, Harkat-ul-Jehad al-Islami and several other ?anti-Awami League organisations?, the book says ISI operatives, ?in association with Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), continue to provide assistance to various Indian insurgent groups present in Bangladesh?. External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha had last week told Lok Sabha about ISI activities in Bangladesh to foment anti-India passions and aid and abet Indian insurgent groups based in that country. The 188-page publication, entitled Pakistan?s Involvement in Terrorism against India, gives several instances of the alleged ISI activities and says the ?strong links? between ISI and Indian insurgent outfits like ULFA, All Tripura Tiger Force, National Democratic Front of Bodoland and those belonging to Manipur and Nagaland, ?for several year? have now been ?firmly established?. Stating that after the US-led operations in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda elements had taken shelter in Bangladesh, Sinha had told Lok Sabha that a large number of madrassas had also sprung up along the Indo-Bangla border. New training camps had been established by major insurgent groups in different parts of Bangladesh, the book said. Maintaining that ISI officers were ?tutoring? insurgent leaders and activists about military and psychological warfare, it said many of them were in possession of ?travel documents (forged or otherwise) of Bangladeshi origin. Some of these have been prepared with the active assistance of ISI operatives in Bangladesh.? It said the so-called commander-in-chief of ULFA, Paresh Baruah, who was still based in Bangladesh, had visited Pakistan in March 2000 ?on a fake passport in the name of Kamaruzzaman Khan. A Pakistani High Commission official in Dhaka ostensibly arranged the visit.? Meanwhile, official sources said Barua and ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, who have reportedly fallen apart in the recent past, wanted to hold a meeting to sort out differences. Stating that Rajkhowa was holed up in the jungles of Bhutan, the sources said army and BSF units were conducting ?intensive patrolling and combing exercise? all along the Indo-Bhutan border to plug the land routes to prevent the ULFA chairman from crossing over into Bangladesh to meet Barua.