Author: Saugar Sengupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 23, 2004
Faced with resistance from the security
forces in the northern part of the State, Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence
(ISI) has chosen the Gangetic, West Bengal as a new base, a vivid report
prepared by the Intelligence Bureau(IB) has suggested. According to the
report, corroborated by the State Criminal Investigation Department, the
Pakistan Intelligence agency has been training thousands of aspiring militants
through out the length and breadth of Bangladesh. "The situation could
go out of control if steps are not taken immediately," top officials said.
Though the unnerving report has
not been made public, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has been briefed
by the Indian intelligence about the impending danger, the thriving terror
camps in the neighbouring country may pose in the future, said highly placed
sources.
Informing that the report was prepared
by the IB, DIG, Crime Investigation Department, DP Tarenia said, "The authorities
have been alerted about the training camps being run by the ISI in Bangladesh.
More than 5,500 militants are taking training in the camps through out
Bangladesh." The training camps are spread over Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna,
Mymensing, Rajsahi, Sylhet, Habibpur and are sponsored by the ISI which
has recently shifted a number of its terror factories to Bangladesh following
the world focusing on Pakistan as a major terror exporting country, sources
added.
While the Begum Khalida-led Government
has repeatedly turned down a Bhutan-type clamp down on the terror camps
by India on grounds that Bangladesh had no information of militant camps
running in their country, the latest report, however, says that the ISI
is not only training the militants how to handle weapon but also introducing
them to drug peddling in order to fund the entire operation.
With the security forces stepping
up operations in the northern part of the State, the ISI have started concentrating
on southern Bengal with the dense and inaccessible Sunderbans as a major
transit point, the report add. Narcotics, mostly cocaine and brown sugar
are being peddled across the wilderness of the Gangetic delta into the
neighbouring states, the report says. "The ISI is playing a major role
in linking the North-eastern terrorists and the People's War-Maoist in
south Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh," said a top IB official.
Though refusing to establish a link
between the powerful mine found near Jhalda railway station in Purulia
district and the latest report tabled by the IB, officials said it could
be possible that the Naxalites have already started getting logistic support
from the ISI functionaries. The ultra Leftist extremists have infested
at least four districts - the two Midnapores, Bankura and Purulia - in
south Bengal, whereas the neighbouring Murshidabad and Malda have been
notorious for their ISI links.
"What strengthens the finds of the
report is the recent series of arrests of the ISI agents made by the security
forces from various parts of the State," said a top IB official. The number
of arrests saw a sudden jump in the recent months with a number of them
being caught from Jalpaiguri in North Bengal, sources said, adding, that
it could be this tightening vigil that has led the ISI to turn its focus
on south Bengal, particularly the inaccessible terrains of Sunderbans.
