Author: Surajit Talukdar, Swapan
Kumar Paul/ Silchar
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 6, 2003
Fearing possible infiltration by
North-east-based Islamic militants, who have received training in neighbouring
Bangladesh, the Cachar district administration in South Assam has clamped
a two-month embargo on people's movement and trade, along the Indo-Bangla
border. The local administration has clamped Section 144 of the CrPC, restricting
the movement of people in the area between 8 pm and 5 am. The ban includes
fishing boats, which will now be prevented from plying in the Surma river
during the stipulated hours. The restrictions would continue "till the
situation returns to normal" along the border, Cachar Deputy Commissioner
PK Das said.
According to highly placed sources,
security forces, including the Border Security Force (BSF), have been asked
to intensify patrol along the porous international border and also in the
districts of Karimganj and Hailakandi, both of which, along with Cachar,
share a common border with Bangladesh. Latest reports suggest that a group
of 50 Islamic militants, that had recently completed its training in Bangladesh,
is set to infiltrate into Assam through the border areas of Cachar and
Karimganj.
According to the sources, the heightened
security measures are being taken to neutralise a plan, recently drawn
up by Dhaka's Directorate of General Forces Intelligence (DGFI), which,
along with Bangladeshi Islamic fundamentalist organisations such as the
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Jamiat-e-Islami, and some Assam-based Islamic
rebel groups, were planning to carry out subversive activities in the three
Indian districts. The plan, the sources say, has been put together at a
location in Bangladesh's Sylhet district, in the presence of a high- ranking
operative of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Habibur Rehman,
leaders of the Bangladesh Aikya Manch (BAM), officials of the DGFI, and
representatives of militant groups such as the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Ansar
and the Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA).
The group's immediate plans in the
North-east include, attacks on BSF outposts along the Cachar and Karimganj
border, the sources say. The militants' final aim is to carve out an independent
Islamic state out of the North-east, the sources say. The DGFI, with active
support from the ISI, at present, run five training camps in the Sylhet
district of Bangladesh where Assam-based Islamic militant outfits are known
to have sent their cadres for training.
The growing Islamic fundamentalism
in Assam is widely attributed to continuing illegal influx of Bangladeshis
into the State, which now has a 33 per cent Muslim population, up from
about 12 per cent in 1947. The growing community is believed to be in a
position to directly determine the outcome in at least 30 of the State's
126 Assembly constituencies. According to reports, the community, in 1991
itself, comprised 49.17, 54.19 and 34.49 per cent of the total population
in Karimganj, Hailakandi and Cachar respectively.
(By arrangement with Newsfile)
