Author: Staff Reporter
Publication: The Assam Tribune
Date: August 11, 2007
URL: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=aug1207/at04
A group of jehadi elements from Bangladesh
have managed to penetrate into Assam along with militants belonging to the
United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to carry out subversive activities,
which posed a serious security threat to the State and all the district police
forces have been put on high alert to thwart the attempts of the groups. Highly
placed police sources told The Assam Tribune here today that according to
reports of the intelligence agencies, the jehadi elements, all foreign nationals,
recently managed to sneak through the porous Indo-Bangla border along with
a group of ULFA militants and the specific task given to them include carrying
out of subversive activities including attacks on vital installations, security
personnel and important personalities. The jehadi elements are much more dreaded
than the ULFA militants because of the fanaticism and they are also experts
in handling of sophisticated explosives, sources said.
Sources said that according to intelligence
inputs, a joint team of ULFA and jehadi elements, which has two jehadi elements,
managed to sneak into Guwahati city, while, two other jehadi elements managed
to sneak into Nalbari along with ULFA militants, while, four other jehadi
elements managed to sneak into lower Assam districts. Sources said that the
intelligence agencies also managed to get the names of a few of the jehadi
elements and all the district police forces have been alerted as there is
no guarantee that they would confine themselves to any particular district.
The problems of the security forces are compounded by the fact that the rank
and file of the ULFA are not aware of their presence and only a handful of
top leaders of the outfit are aware of the entry of joint teams of jehadi
elements and ULFA militants from Bangladesh.
Commenting on the recent attacks on Hindi
speaking people in Karbi Along, sources said that there were intelligence
inputs about the possibility of the militants launching a fresh attack on
Hindi speaking people. So far, 23 Hindi speaking people have been killed in
two separate incidents in Karbi Anglong and sources said that it is not possible
to provide security to all the villages inhabited by Hindi speaking people.
Sources said that the feasibility of bringing in Hindi speaking people living
in isolated places to safer places is being examined. Police suspect that
the attacks in Karbi Anglong were carried out by joint teams of ULFA and KLNLF
as the ULFA has recently started helping the Karbi outfit with training and
providing the outfit sophisticated weapons and in return, the ULFA militants
are taking shelter in the camps of the KLNLF.
Senior police officials said that the possibility
of attacks on Hindi speaking people in other parts of the State cannot be
ruled out and the police forces of all the districts have been put on high
alert to thwart any such move. Police believes that the attacks on Hindi speaking
people is a part of a greater design to create shortage of labour force to
that the vacuum can be filled up with Bangladeshi nationals.
On the recent blasts in different parts of
the State, police sources pointed out that earlier the ULFA used to hit selected
targets, but the strategy of the outfit has totally changed and now it has
started to plant bombs even in dust bins, which compounded the problems of
the security forces. Sources said that foreign agencies including the Pakistani
Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) provided the ULFA with sophisticated explosives
and even PTD and remote controlled switches in large numbers and the outfit
even used untrained cadres and hired persons to plant bombs. The only way
out to control this menace is to increase area domination by the security
forces, but shortage of force is one major hurdle. The Assam Police force
now has about 7000 vacant posts and though Central Government has sent forces
to the state, the Central forces only managed to fill up the void of shortage
of manpower in Assam police and "in fact the central forces are only
filling up the void created by the vacancies and in practice we are not having
any extra force for improved area domination," sources added.
