Islamic Terror Plans

The statement of the Director-General of National Investigation Agency (NIA), YC Modi on Monday that the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) has stepped up its activities in Assam and several other states of the country with the ulterior motive of creating and spreading terror has once again brought to focus a serious problem facing the country which has its roots in large-scale illegal infiltration from Bangladesh. Modi, who was speaking at the NIA’s national conference of chiefs of the Anti-Terror Squads ATS) and Special Task Forces (STF) in the national capital, has very clearly pointed out that the JMB, a Bangladesh-based Islamic terror group, had already spread its tentacles to Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka after having set up strong bases in various pockets of Assam and West Bengal inhabited by people who either have their roots in erstwhile East Pakistan and present-day Bangladesh or have migrated from that country in the recent couple of decades. According to the NIA, the JMB has even conducted a trial run of rocket launchers in the Krishnagiri Hills of Karnataka. This is enough indication that the JMB, with the help of a large number of Bangladeshi immigrants living in Assam can very easily launch a simultaneous attack on various vital installations including bridges, airports, refineries and security installations in the State.

The NIA and Assam Police have time and again stated that the JMB has carried out large-scale recruitment drives across Assam, following which youths belonging to Muslim families of migrant origin have been trained in handling sophisticated weapons, manufacture of explosive devices, and carrying out sabotage acts and also organized into numerous sleeper cells. The NIA had only a couple of years ago busted a training center of the JMB in a lower Assam district and also arrested over 50 Muslim youth in the immigrant-infested areas of Kokrajhar, Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Barpeta, Nalbari and Hojai districts. One dreaded JMB terrorist and jihadi Sahanur Alam, who was also one of the key accused in the Burdwan blast incident of 2014 was arrested from a village in Nalbari district later that year. This Bangladesh-based terror group is also believed to have drawn up a plan to trigger off trouble in case there was any attempt to expel illegal Bangladeshi migrants from Assam. It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had in July 2005 discussed in detail the dangerous games that the illegal migrants from Bangladesh have been playing in Assam to foment both internal troubles as well as external disturbances.

While nationalist organisations like the All Assam Students’ Union have been constantly warning the government of the threat posed by the presence of Bangladeshis in Assam, former Assam Governor Lt Gen (retd) SK Sinha had in his report to the President in 1998 also clearly mentioned about the threat these Bangladeshis pose to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of India in the Northeast.

Surprisingly, those groups, organizations, and individuals who have been engaged in a campaign to deny infiltration and are out to protect the illegal migrants especially in the backdrop of the publication of the National Register of Citizens, do not raise a voice against these terror groups. With the NIA chief now providing such an alarming picture, the security forces should carry out a major crackdown on the JMB and conduct intensive combing operations in those pockets inhabited by illegal migrants which are known hideouts of the terrorist outfit.

Also Read: Colombo Easter Massacre: Can Islamic Terror Be a Diplomatic Asset?