Author: Jyoti Lal Chowdhury
Publication: Organiser
Date: August 6, 2006
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=142&page=12
Ever widening terrorist network across the
country with gaping holes in the national security cover has once again been
exposed with the arrest of 11 Maharashtrian youths based at Thane from the
remote border village of Malai in Tripura, close to the hotbed of fundamentalist
forces of Sylhet in Bangladesh. The sojourn of this band of missionaries as
they claimed their affiliation of Tabligh-i-Jamaat all the way from Thane
to the remotest last border village of North-East just 18 days before the
Mumbai bomb blasts does reflect on our fragile intelligence and defence system.
Interrogations of these youths identified
as Md Sheikh, Wajid, Irfan, Harun Rashid, Zafar Khan, Juned, Atif, Ashfaq,
Afjal, Zaeed and Zaheer by intelligence and police officials have brought
forth many intriguing facts. They, in fact, are SIMI (Students' Islamic Movement
of India) activists and their mission was to build up a terrorist network
in the border areas with support from Bangladesh as Tripura DGP G M Srivastava
said, "We have strong reason to suspect that the youths were here with
some sinister design".
Their link with SIMI has also been suspected
by the Maharashtra police. The youths have confessed their attachment with
Darul Faisal mosque of Thane and were here to preach and propagate Islam.
But, links were missing in their version. Darul Faisal mosque itself clarified
that the missionaries were to go to Manipur for Tablighi work, how could they
land in Tripura. On being grilled further, they claimed to have been advised
by Delhi's Nizamuddin mosque to work as tablighis. "But, they did not
have necessary registration cards, about the authenticity of the version",
said a police officer. In fact, the Tabligh headquarters in New Delhi provides
registration cards whenever any such group goes out to preach Islam. What
has baffled the Intelligence and police officials is their inability to explain
why did they change their destination from Manipur to Tripura.
Police came across yet another startling revelation.
It was a group of twelve. Where did another disappear? What is his identity?
A police official identified the enigmatic person as Faisal Ansari. The investigators
got certain clues and are trying to focus on possible links between Faisal
and Ziabuddin Ansari, a key suspect in 7/11 Mumbai bomb blasts, who is an
explosive expert from Bangladesh. The police official said that Faisal left
the group on July 9, two days before the Mumbai blasts.
Much more skeletons were to roll out of the
cupboard. The 12 missionaries under cloud had been sheltered at Ramnagar mosque
on the out-skirt of Agartala and from there they were taken to Malai mosque
and it did bring out yet another angle of their mysterious mission. The key
figure in this operation-Dilwar Hussain of Ramnagar mosque-too was picked
up for interrogation. One of the interrogators said, "Hussain with Bangladeshi
links acted as a conduit".
Their camping at Malai village is clear indication
that these youths were waiting for signal from Bangladesh either to sneak
into for terrorist training or recruit cadres for Islamic fundamentalist group.
Records with police show that many SIMI cadres were trained by Harkat -ul
Jihad-al-Islami in Ukhia of Bangladesh. After training, these cadres return
to the country and carry out terrorist activities or recruit jehadis. Harkat-ul
Jihad-al-Islami provides them all facilities.
This has further added a disturbing dimension
to the movement of youths as DGP G M Srivastava pointed out, "Reports
are that ISI backed terrorist outfits taking advantage of the Poros border
rope in ill-motivated groups for their sinister activities".
From all reckoning, it was mission Bangladesh
for the youths. Though abortive, it calls for thorough probe. The composition
of the group with queer mix up of professionals and diverse callings is not
in itself above-board. Mohammad Sheikh, Wajid and Irfan are engineers; Harun
Rashid and Zafar Khan worked in Dubai and Qatar while others are from different
professions. Interestingly, Mohammad Sheikh, the leader, was in the USA when
the World Trade Centre was hit.
Close on the heels of the detention of these
Maharashtrians, another group of eight Gujarati youths were rounded up from
Udaipur mosque, 50 kms from Agartala, the capital of Tripura. The police is
looking into their SIMI attachment.
This was followed by yet another shocking
development in Assam. As the Assam police joins nation wide hunt for the Mumbai
bomb blasts suspects, it tumbled upon a 5-member group in Al Farhat Lodge
in Guwahati on July 17. These youths have been identified as Abdullah Yusuf
Ali of Chapra district of UP, Md Shahbuddin of Begusarai of Bihar, Mir Isa
Haque and Sheikh Asraf Tarafdar from Orissa and Hasmat Reza of Hazari Bagh
of Bihar. They had camouflaged their names as Hindus.
What baffled the police after their investigation
was that they visited the famous Kamakhya temple twice. They could not explain
why did they visit the holy shrine. "It is now suspected that they may
have been on a recce, probably to carry out terrorist attack on the holy shrine",
said a police official.
This sudden spurt in the movement of these
youths in the guise of preachers and visitors in the sensitive North-east
with dubious conduits across the border can't be seen in isolation. It may
be part of a bigger conspiracy to destabilise the region. "In the absence
of POTA, it is very difficult to deal with such a critical situation",
pointed out the police official.
(The author can be contacted at Satsang Ashram
Road, Silchar, Assam-788 007 e-mail: jlchowdhury@yahoo.co.in)
