Delhi sounds alert on Bangla border

Our Bureau & Agencies

New Delhi/Guwahati, July 2: The Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday intensified vigil along the Indo-Bangladesh border in the wake of the terror attack in Dhaka after the government sounded a high alert in bordering states.

Official sources said in Delhi that the Union Home Ministry has directed the Border Security Force (BSF) and other agencies to keep strict vigil along the intertiol borders. "Adequate security measures need to be taken in border areas of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya," an informed source said.

Union Home Minister Rajth Singh was briefed by senior officials in the ministry and security agencies on the situation in Bangladesh.

BSF officials said troops on the border have been alerted and vigil intensified.

In coordition with the police, the BSF troopers are also conducting search operations in villages of Bengal near the Bangladesh border.

"Elements linked to the Dhaka attack may try to sneak into India. We are on alert to prevent any such intrusion," said a BSF official in Guwahati.

Bangladesh has lately seen an increase in militant Islamist violence.

Home to about 150 million Muslims, Bangladesh has for long been able to ward off Islamic radicalism and the Sheikh Hasi government in particular has been widely considered to be committed to secularism.

However, Islamic fundamentalism of the Wahabi and Talibani variety has of late "plagued" a section of the Bangladeshi society as manifested in attacks on secular writers, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, say Indian intelligence agencies.

"Apparently it all moved according to a set pattern," an informed source told IANS.

Official sources said the Tripura and Assam governments have reported to the Central government in the recent past the activities of a few Bangladesh-based Islamic organisations which "could have also aligned to the ISIS" mainly in terms of getting funds and identifying "raw recruits".