Author: Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri
Publication: DNA (Daily News & Analysis)
Date: July 10, 2008
URL: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1176689
Bangladesh's Director General of Forces Intelligence
(DGFI) has slowly started making its presence felt in West Bengal, with around
100 specially-trained DGFI spies operating in the state, trying to build a
network.
The intelligence branch (IB) of West Bengal
Police has alerted the state home department in this regard. As per IB, these
DGFI agents are operating in groups in districts on the Indo-Bangla.
IB secured this information from the two DGFI
agents it arrested from a hotel in Kolkata recently. Bangladeshi nationals
Shamim Akhtar and Sheikh Abdul Malik told IB they had been appointed by DGFI
to set up bases in West Bengal.
"Each group has seven to ten dedicated
agents and each team is headed by a member of DGFI's highly-sophisticated
Bureau-X," a senior IB officer told DNA. He said Bureau-X was the latest
of the 12 DGFI bureaus and comprised only the best and highly- specialised
spies. IB suspects around 15 Bureau-X members are active in West Bengal.
"Bureau X members are agents of both
DGFI and Pakistan's ISI," the IB officer said, adding that besides regular
espionage training from DGFI, they received specialised training from Pakistan
Rangers in handling deadly weapons and sophisticated gadgets.
Bureau-X members fluently speak a number of languages, which provides them
additional flexibility in espionage. The IB officer said the DGFI agents operating
in West Bengal spoke all the various dialects in the Indo-Bangladesh border
districts.
- r_sumanta@dnaindia.net
