Fang of terror dig hard in the borders of Northeast

Ratnadeep Choudhury

The terror link is spreading its wings to the northeast. Tripura, the tiny frontier state of northeast has been hitting the national headlines over the past one decade due to prolonged insurgency. While the proximity with Bangladesh has always acted at a damping factor in anti insurgency operations, of late, with hundreds of ultras coming over ground and vertical splits among under ground outfits, the insurgency menace has been on back foot. Defence experts also attribute this de-escalation in militancy to the erection of barbed wired fence along the 856 km border that the state shares with Bangladesh. But, now an even bigger threat looms large. Intelligence reports were already there that jihadis and Islamic Fundamentalists were using the Indo-Bangla border in Tripura. This month, nearly 20 odd ‘Islamic Preachers’ were ‘picked up for interrogation’ by Tripura Police from different border villages on suspicion that they were ‘Jihadi’. This incident occurred soon after the 7/11 series bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai. Tripura soon found itself once again in the national headlines, the TV channels making the chaos dour, airing the ‘suspected Tripura terror link’ story in the prime time. After, a week long investigations, which included a special team from Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Mumbai police, Cops have stated that those ‘suspicious’ Muslim youths were not ‘Jihadis’, yet this incident has raised many eyebrows and an array of issues stills remains uninvestigated, which may pose as a concern for internal security of the country, in the days to come. Tripura Police arrested 11 Maharastrian Muslim youths attached to Tabligh-I-Jamaat, an organization engaged in preaching Islam. These youths were picked up by cops from a mosque, in Malaya village, barely 500 meters away from the porous Indo-Bangla border in Kamalpur subdivision of Dhalai district. Their movement was apparently ‘suspicious’. Recent central intelligence reports hints to the fact that, Islamic Fundamentalist are using the borders of Northeast as a corridor to pass into Bangladesh, which of late, has become the hub of Jihadi activities. Considering the youths’ backgrounds there was a probability of their trying to create a cross border terror network. “ Is was a queer mix of people from different strata, the group had at least three engineers, among them one Muhammad Sheikh (33), was from Thane. He studied and worked in US, was with Microsoft, later floated his own company in Washington. Leaving US, he changed his base to Hyderabad, now you find him in a border village of Tripura, where he hardly knows the local language, then how can he preach religion here? These questions have raised doubt.,” says GM Srivastava, DGP of Tripura Police. According to state intelligence sleuths, there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of Muslim youths visiting the border villages of Tripura over past one year; this also corresponds with the rise in Islamic militancy in Bangladesh, significantly during last one year. Few days, after the 11 Maharastrians were picked up by police, another group of 8 Muslim youths hailing from Gujrat, were picked up by cops from a mosque in Udaipur,in South tripura district. They also appeared to be ‘highly suspicious’ to police. Although they claimed to be part of Tabligh-I-.
, but presence of these youths from far off places like Godhra, Bharauch and Ankeleshwar, raised alarms. Later, after confirmation from ATS that these youths were not involved in7/11, they were let off, but the threat remains for Northeast. “ ISI and SIMI is arranging for movement of fresh recruits and hardcore Islamic militant across the Indo-Bangla border in Tripura. Many Madrassas in Bangladesh have turned into training camps, we have confirm reports.” Says an IB sleuth on condition of anonymity. A Tripura Police official said at least three of the 11 arrested were hard core members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) during their college days.During investigation it was further revealed that most of the youths who are visiting Northeast as apart of Tabligh-I-Jammaat have close connection with SIMI. “"We cannot jump into conclusions and so we are ascertaining if those interrogated are telling truth or not, but they had some link with SIMI and the link might still persist” says one of the ATS officers. People living near the Indo-Bangla border in Tripura have witnessed an influx of so called ‘religious preachers’ in their locality, a fact that even BSF also agrees. “ We are keeping a close eye on people having close link with fundamentalist organization of Bangladesh, they might try to sneak through the Indo-Bangla border “, opined A.K Mitra, DG of BSF during his last visit to the Tripura frontier. Defence experts have observed that ISI linked terror organizations are not carring out any ‘direct operation’ in Northeast, rather they provide monetary and logistic supports to the militants of Northeast, and silently using the borders of the region to slip into the neighboring countries.