Author: Prabin Kalita
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: December 15, 2001
At Least six camps of ULFA situated
at Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) along the Tripura-Bangladesh border are
being run by Harkat-ul-Jehad.
Established in 1992 in Bangladesh,
the Harakat-ul-Jehad-Al-Islami is believed to be aided by Osama bin-Laden
and Pakistan's ISI. It maintains several terrorist camps in the CHT. The
cadres of the outfit call themselves "Bangladeshi Taliban".
The outfit has about 15,000 cadres,
according to official sources. The camps located in the Khograchari and
Rangapani areas of Sabrum district in southernmost tip of Tripura bordering
Bangladesh were set up in 1995 with the help of the erstwhile Shantibahini
organization, the military outfit of the Chakmas.
The camps have been activated recently
after the Khaleda Zia government in Bangladesh, dubbed as being close to
the Ulfa leadership, came into being.
While the focus was on Ulfa's camps
in Bhutan, the militant outfit was setting up new bases outside Assam as
well as outside the country.
Its second largest base after Bhutan
in terms of cadre strength is located inside Mynamar about 150 km from
Moreh in Nagaland.
The camp called Nagabase is also
the headquarters of the 2nd brigade of NSCN (K).
There are at least 350 Ulfa cadres
in this camp with the general secretary in-charge of Ulfa Chitraban Hazarika
as the camp head.
According to top intelligence sources,
Hazarika operates from this base and interacts with human rights groups
in Thailand.
The militant outfit has also set
up two more new camps in Nepal. Following pressure from Bhutan to vacate
its camps, the outfit is actively working on relocating its general headquarters
and central headquarters.
The outfit has also carved out new
routes out of Bhutan after the old ones became visible to security forces
operating in Assam.
One of the major new routes is to
Bangladesh via West Bengal. Men with weapons travel the entire length of
Indo-Bhutan boundary before entering West Bengal through Jamduar, Alipurduar,
Cooch Behar to Bangladesh.
Facing a serious security threat
from the presence of Ulfa and NDFB, the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) has also
deployed its troops along the Bhutan-Assam border only recently.
And the RBA is carrying out training
and logistic mobilization in the event that military operations become
necessary to drive out the militants from Bhutan.
