Terrorists using Bengal as a weapon–procuring and transit point
You just spend Rupees One Lakh and get a father “on rent” so that you can grab a “Aadhaar card, Pan card, voter identity card, passport and all other necessary objects for getting citizenship with the help of that rented father. Gone are the days of “Syndicate” or the likes for providing such facilities to terrorists and infiltrators from across the Bangladesh border.
This information has been made available to the sleuths of Special Task Force (STF) and Intelligence Department while interrogating the recently arrested terrorists. No one knew that the danger had come so close to our homes until four members of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) were arrested from Kolkata Station on November 21, 2017 and cops revealed they had been staying at hotels barely a kilometer from Howrah Station since before the Under-17 World Cup held in the city. What is worse is that the police have not been able to track the three others from the same group who have gone into hiding into Kolkata. One among them might have had a hand in the murders of Bangladeshi bloggers in 2015-16.
The STF has got the conclusive evidence that the suspected evidence of ABT—now rechristened Ansar
Al-Islam—stayed at Balaji Lodge and Shiva Guest House three to five days each in the first week of October with an aim to set up base. They had been in touch with the syndicates that help men from Bangladesh cross over without valid documents and settle in Kolkata. According to police the ABT members had been commuting from Bangladesh to Kolkata often since October.
Highly Organised Module
The questioning of four arrested—Samsad Mia alias Tanvir, Riazul Islam alias Riyaz, logistic arranger Sahadat Hossain and arms supplier Monotosh Dey – has revealed that ABT follows a highly organised hierarchy and the entire module consisted of 10-15 members. The STF has not yet been ascertained how many of them are still hiding in Bengal or the other states. “Not more than two persons met each other at any particular time. No one knew what the other was up to. The chief instructor who was stationed in Bangladesh ensured that there was
minimum interaction among module members. Samsad and Tamim entered India through Gaccha in Basirhat with the help of Sahadat and moved to Hyderabad but split soon after. Samsad left for Patna where he was asked to meet Umar. Riyaz who entered India with someone else and worked with Sahadat, met Samsad only when both came to Kolkata. Tamim by then moved out of Hyderabad. He came to Kolkata and disappeared again,” said a police source.
For the time being STF has identified mainly two districts namely Birbhum and North 24 Parganas. STF sleuths admit that almost every alternate day there are arms blasts in different places of Birbhum district. Top brass of Intelligence Department is apprehending more such blasts in remote parts of the district as Panchayat election is round the corner in the district. Information has already started pouring in that arms are being hoarded in those places which have already been identified as ‘safe zone’ for them. These arms and ammunitions are being supplied to different destinations including Indo-Bangladesh cross border smugglers.
Huge Cache Arms Seized
On November 25, the cops belonging to STF raided the house of Monotosh Dey in Basirhat under district of 24 Parganas. The cops hauled up a large amount of varieties of arms. Description of those arms is as follows: Local made one shotter; 9mm pistol dual magazine; 2 sealed packets of 12-gauge ammunition with 25 rounds each; one round each of 303 and 12-gauge ammunition; 10 rounds of 9mm ammunition; 3 rounds of 8mm
ammunition; 11 rounds of 7’65 mm ammunition. The STF officers said that the group had maintained extreme caution while communicating with one another over popular chat platform like WhatsApp. They relied on those platforms that automatically wipe out all chat history after a specified time.
In this connection it should be mentioned here that ABT was declared as banned organisation in Bangladesh in May 2015. The terrorist activities of ABT did not stop. Instead, they continued their activities in a more virulent way under the name of “Ansar Al Islam”, subsequently Ansar Al Islam was also declared as banned organisation. — Asim Kumar Mitra
