NEW DELHI, March 20 - Radicalization and efforts by fundamentalist terrorist outfits may turn out to be the biggest threats to the North East region of India, particularly Assam, in the days to come and there is need for strengthening the intelligence gathering mechanism to deal with it.
Highly placed sources in the Government of India told The Assam Tribune that with activities of the North East based militant groups on the wane and they are facing the heat due to counter-insurgency operations within the country and offensive launched by Myanmar Army, the main threat in the days to come is likely from the fundamentalist forces based outside the country.
�Radicalization is something which is difficult to detect and there is need for building up strong intelligence network on the ground to deal with the problem,� sources pointed out and said that though no fundamentalist terror groups has been able to strike in the North East, footprints of such outfits were seen on the ground several times in the past.
With the Government�s attention is more on Kashmir, the possibility of Pakistani agencies trying to push in activists of such terror groups to the North East through Bangladesh and Myanmar also cannot be ruled out. Though the present Government in Bangladesh is taking steps against terror groups and the security agencies of both the countries are also sharing intelligence on activities of the terrorist groups regularly, there are �pro Pakistani officials in Bangladesh at the lower level� and the possibility of such officers providing help to Pakistani agencies cannot be ruled out. Sources pointed out that in the 1990s, youths from Assam were enrolled by Harkat ul Mujaheedin (HUM) and they were taken to Pakistan for training via Bangladesh and that could not have been possible without direct or indirect help from any Government official. �India must not lower its guard just because we now have a friendly Government in Bangladesh as no Government can have full control over all officials and a handful of pro Pakistani officials can help Pakistan supported groups to sneak into India,� sources added.
Sources further said that foot prints of Jamat ul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB) and Ansar Ul Bangla Team (ABT) were found in India, particularly in Assam and West Bengal and after the Burdwan blast in 2014. A number of JMB cadres were arrested in Assam, while, only recently, one ABT cadre was arrested in West Bengal. ABT is a wing of Al Queda and the outfit is trying to establish bases in Bangladesh. On the other hand, Neo JMB, which is a wing of the Islamic State, is also trying its best to set up bases in Bangladesh and the possibility of members of the outfit making attempts to cross over to India cannot be ruled out. Under the circumstances, the security and intelligence agencies must keep a very close watch on the situation, sources added.
