Traces of JeM footprints in Assam triggers security threat

Guwahati, Oct 15: Tracing the footprints of Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Assam is a matter of serious concern as the outfit was mostly active only in Jammu and Kashmir for years and it is the first time that activities of the group have been detected in the Northeast.

Security sources told The Assam Tribune that the JeM was raised with the help of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The outfit, since its inception, has been trying to push its members to Jammu and Kashmir to indulge in violence. Recently, footprints of the outfit in other parts of the country were detected during a nationwide raid conducted by the NIA based on technical inputs.

In the past, terrorist outfits like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Ansar Bangla Team (ABT), which is a part of the Al Qaeda Indian Subcontinent, tried to establish roots in Assam.

But Assam Police and security agencies managed to thwart such attempts and arrested a number of cadres of the outfits. It was easier for the JMB and ABT to establish roots in Assam because they have strong bases in Bangladesh.

But the JeM does not have a strong base in Bangladesh, and if the outfit is trying to establish roots in Assam, it is a matter of serious concern.

The sources pointed out that the JeM does not have to send their people to Assam and other parts of the country to establish roots as they use social media platforms to radicalise youth.

JeM member Sheikh Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Krishnai in Goalpara, was a similar case. He was inducted into the JeM through cyberspace and he was trying to radicalise others to join the outfit. He was arrested on the basis of strong technical inputs.

The JeM is not trying to indulge in violent acts in the near future but the main aim of the outfit at this moment is to create a base in Assam by inducting new members.

The main problem for the security agencies is that with the improvement in information technology, terrorist outfits do not have to send their own people to India but they can induct youths into their fold by sitting thousands of miles away, the sources added.

-By Ramanuj Dutta Choudhury