Author: Bibhu Prasad Routray
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 29, 2008
The Parliamentary Standing Committee for the
Ministry of Home Affairs, in its recent report, has asked the Government to
monitor the country's eastern border, saying large-scale illegal migration
from Bangladesh is threatening the country's security and economy. The report
said that a large presence of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants posed a grave
threat to India's security and economy as many border-crossers come with sophisticated
weapons and ammunition to fuel terrorism. They also carry a large amount of
fake Indian currency to weaken the economy, the report added.
The Annual Report of the Ministry of Home
Affairs, 2007-08, too, has expressed similar apprehensions. It reads, "The
hand of Pakistan-based terrorist organisations -- LeT and JeM -- and, increasingly
of the Bangladesh-based HuJI, known to have close links with ISI, has been
observed in most of" the terrorist activities in the country. While for
the last couple of years, the Pakistani terror network originating in Bangladesh
has received some attention, the critical role played by the illegal Bangladeshi
migrants in India in such operations appears to have been lost sight of. Even
the hullabaloo over the ever-growing number of migrants from Bangladesh, mostly
described as demographic invasion of a serious kind, by mainstream political
parties has hardly taken note of the subversive potential of the rather innocuous
population flow from our eastern neighbour. And the political parties, for
whom these migrants have become lucrative vote-banks, have taken great care
to push any debate linking them with terror elements under the carpet. There
is, consequently, very little open source information linking the illegal
migrants with the terror attacks in the country.
Benefiting from such premeditated ambivalence,
concentrations of the Bangladeshi migrants in big metropolises like New Delhi
and Mumbai and also the smaller built up areas, have provided the terrorists
crossing over from across the border a safe parking space. Among the large
swathe of largely economic migrants, the terror elements have found anonymity,
easy mingling space and also potential recruits.
The first successful attack carried out by
the Bangladesh-based HuJI using the facilities provided by the illegal migrants
was the January 22, 2002, attack at the American Centre in Kolkata. An early
morning attack by a group of HuJI cadre left five policemen dead on the spot,
responsibility for which was claimed by two organisations, the HuJI and the
Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF). In fact, the ARCF was an adjunct of the HuJI,
formed and manned largely by Bangladeshi migrants in India and some experienced
HUJI-B cadre in India who were trained at ISI-backed training camps in Pakistan.
It was formed at a village, 15 km from Habibpur town, populated by illegal
Bangladeshi migrants in Malda district of West Bengal.
Footprints of Bangladeshi nationals, often
illegal residents in this country, have been unambiguous in the number of
terror strikes in Indian urban centres that have taken place in the last couple
of years. Bangladesh has been a common thread running through the attacks
carried out in New Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Hyderabad and Nasik. Two Bangladeshi
nationals, Masuluddin and Hussain, absconding suspects in the twin blasts
in Hyderabad in August 2007 are known to have been staying in the Hyderabad
city illegally for two years. In April 2008, a Bangladeshi HuJI militant was
arrested from Agartala where he had been staying for a couple of months, at
the behest of a Minister in the State Cabinet.
The official response to the threat remains
clueless and strangely dependant on non-existent Bangladeshi co-operation.
On April 23, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Parliament,
"Illegal migration is a genuine problem, but Bangladesh refuses to recognise
it. How this could be solved when Bangladesh does not want to accept it?"
On the other hand, the Government's predicament is understandable. Border
fencing, a critical component of the country's border management policy, continues
to lie in doldrums. In nearly two decades of fencing projects, over two phases,
61 per cent of the 4,096-km long international border with Bangladesh have
been fenced. According to the Government's own admission, most of the 854-km
long fence erected during the Phase-I of the process have already been damaged
and does not serve the purpose it was constructed for.
This means that the country's security will
continue to be vulnerable in the foreseeable future.
Bibhu Prasad Routray is a Research Fellow,
Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi
