GUWAHATI, March 29 - With elections to Assam and West Bengal legislative Assembly constituencies round the corner, intelligence agencies have come across disturbing inputs about the possibility of anti-India elements pumping in Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) to destabilise the economy of the country.
Highly placed sources in the Government of India told The Assam Tribune that immediately after receiving the input, the Border Security Force (BSF) has been alerted to increase vigil along the Indo-Bangla border. It is an established fact that transaction of substantial amounts of money takes place during the elections and that is why the anti-India elements would try to pump in FICN to India, particularly to Assam and West Bengal, which share an international border with Bangladesh, sources added.
Sources pointed out that such high quality FICN is not printed in Bangladesh and the country is only being used as a transit route. According to information available with the Indian security agencies, such FICN are prepared in Pakistan and there have been instances where the quality of such fake notes is such that even banks often find it difficult to detect those. Of course, the Government of Bangladesh has been helping India to deal with the menace and the security forces of that country managed to seize several consignments of FICN.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh border is also vulnerable as the anti-India elements may try to bring in weapons and explosives by taking advantage of the porous border. Though the militants of the North East now do not have strong bases in Bangladesh, they can still try to bring in weapons with the help of anti-India elements.
Sources also said that the Government of India has also directed the Assam Rifles to intensify vigil along the international border with Myanmar. Most of the insurgent groups of the North East have strong bases in Myanmar and there is a strong possibility of the militants trying to move in their members to create trouble in Assam. The United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) is desperate to make its presence felt during the elections, and for that the outfit may try to push in members to the State from their bases in Myanmar, sources pointed out.
