The state has previously been identified as ISI’s route to India from Bangladesh on multiple occasions.
Kolkata: Enhanced threat perception and the growth in subversive activities in West Bengal and neighbouring Bangladesh following the fall of the Hasina government, which could have far-ranging after-effects across India, prompted National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval to make a hush-hush trip to Kolkata last weekend.
The threats mainly range from sleeper cells of Maoists and extremist Islamist groups which may already be using West Bengal as a safe haven and as a transit point to further their subversive agenda.
Sources said that NSA Ajit Doval held back-to-back meetings with high-ranking intelligence officials and discussed issues ranging from Pakistan’s spying agency ISI’s growing activities in neighbouring Bangladesh and possibility of fugitive Maoist leaders’ presence in West Bengal. These intelligence officials are posted in all eastern and northeastern states.
Intelligence networks have been told to be made more vigilant in the districts of Birbhum, Malda, Murshidabad and South 24-Parganas which have a large number of unrecognised madrasas which may provide support to such subversive elements.
During his meetings, NSA Doval asked the intelligence chiefs to be vigilant and detect those who may be providing logistics and financial support to the subversive elements. He also emphasised the need for continuous monitoring of these subversive elements and to keep a sharp eye on the infiltration data.
The need to strengthen integrated border management across all the states which share the 4,096 km International Border with Bangladesh with better coordination between the Border Security Force, the state police and the central and state intelligence bureaux was also emphasised.
Sources in the central Intelligence Bureau said Doval’s visit was very significant in the backdrop of Pakistan ISI chief’s twin visits to Bangladesh within a month and India’s security forces’ massive crackdown against Maoists in Chhattisgarh.
“Doval discussed the arrests of a total of 19 operatives of Bangladesh-based terror outfit Ansar-al-Islam, also known as Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), and Pakistan-linked terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in the past three months who have connections with West Bengal and Assam. The last arrest was made by the Assam police’s Special Task Force (STF) on February 12. A key ABT operative was rounded up from Chennai,” said an IB officer.
The officer said: “The NSA expressed concern about the ISI’s covert Bangladesh visit twice in the last month, especially the last one when a 10-member ISI team camped in Chittagong for a week this month. Bengal has previously been identified as ISI’s route to India from Bangladesh on multiple occasions. In December, Jammu and Kashmir police arrested a Pakistan-trained terrorist from Canning in South 24 Parganas. It has to be kept in mind that these Islamic extremist organisations may have different names, but they have a common objective—to disturb India. So, they are all networked with each other.”
Doval also emphasised the potential presence of Maoists in Bengal, which was a hotbed for the outlawed outfit 14 years ago.
“Though the rebels have been lying low in Bengal since CPI(Maoist) politburo member Kishanji’s encounter death in 2011, but we have information that there are thousands of sympathisers of the outfit spread all across the western part of the state. The NSA directed us to keep a close watch on Bengal’s erstwhile Maoist strongholds where top-level rebel leaders, who are on the run, may have taken refuge after the security force’s assault in Chhattisgarh,” said another IB officer.
Hunga Karma, one of the 31 rebels who were gunned down in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, on February 10, had spent three years in Bengal from 2012 to revive the organisation’s activities.
According to IB sources, security forces are on the hunt for top-level fugitive Maoist leaders which include Mallojula Venugopal Rao, also known as Sonu, Thippiri Tirupathi, alias Devji, Nirmala, Madvi Hidma, Katakam Sudarshan, and four others who are part of the outfit’s politburo and central committee. Each of them has a bounty of Rs 1 crore on their heads.
There are apprehensions that middle and upper-level Maoists are trying to become active with the help of sympathisers and sleeper cells in various parts of the country.
In Chhattisgarh, a total of 81 Maoists were killed
NSA Doval’s trip came days before a comprehensive review at a multi-agency meeting in New Delhi on February 20, sources said.
Former IPS officer Debashis Dhar told The Sunday Guardian: “We have seen a spurt of train accidents and also accidents at Maha Kumbh in the recent past. I shall not be surprised if it emerges that at least some of these incidents may have been caused by forces inimical to India.”