BSF submits list of 190 ultra camps to BDR

GUWAHATI, April 17 – The Border Security Force (BSF) has handed over a list of 190 camps of the militant outfits of India in Bangladesh to the Bangladesh Rifles. The Director General of BSF, RS Mooshahary said that the list, with pinpointed location of the camps, was handed over to the BDR in a meeting between the two forces, which concluded in Dhaka yesterday.Mooshahary told newsmen here today that the BSF has also handed over a list of 161 militants taking shelter in Bangladesh and requested the BDR to take action to evict them. He said that the lists were prepared on the basis of intelligence inputs and on confessional statements of the arrested militants. The BDR assured to verify the list and “let us know,” he added. It may be mentioned here that earlier also, the BSF had submitted lists of camps of Indian militants in Bangladesh but so far no action has been taken by the Bangladeshi forces in this regard.Mooshahary said that the general secretary of the United liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) Anup Chetia has been released from prison in Bangladesh but the Bangladeshi authorities have not handed him over to India despite repeated requests. He said that they had raised the issue during the meeting, but the BDR officials said that the matter was not in their hands and the BDR is not authorised to take any decision in this regard.

Tarun Gogoi statements

GUWAHATI, April 17 – Axom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s latest acknowledgement, that groups like Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and Harkat-ul-Jehadi-al-Islam (HuJI) are trying to expand their network in Axom, there are reports that Bangladeshi Bangla Bhai has entered neighbouring West Bengal and is planning to cross over to Axom soon. Bangla Bhai is currently on the run in his native country where he is hunted by the local police for involvement in a string of political murders.Despite the Chief Minister’s effort to downplay the threat of Islamic militancy in the State, the sources said that the activities of the jehadi groups within Axom as well as in Bangladesh hold ominous portents for the State.Bangla Bhai is a key figure in Operation Pin Code launched in Bangladesh last December with the design of creating a separate Islamist homeland out of Axom and West Bengal territories. . The JMJB has been recently banned in Bangladesh.“Bangla Bhai is supposed to meet religious leaders in West Bengal and Axom,” the sources disclosed, adding that a sharp eye is being kept on the latest developments. Operation Pin Code, they said, was launched in the town of Mahammadpur, near Dhaka, during a two-day conclave of several Islamic organizations on December 27 and 28. The meeting was convened by Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh. The plan has been masterminded by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Significantly, the ULFA had also sent a representative to the meeting.The sources said that Brigadier TK Baksh of the ISI was the one who explained the nitty-gritties of the operation to all those who attended the meeting. Among them was a Bangladeshi minister. The plan includes the raising of a 20,000-strong army to fulfil the objective of creating a greater Islamic homeland on Indian soil. A large part of lower Axom comes in the ambit of this “dreamland”, the sources said.