Transnational Islam: Threat to India’s northeast underbelly

Published by
Nirendra Dev

Pak designs supported by Jamat-e-Islami want a highly radicalised Bangladesh. All their policies and theories have failed, but the authorities in Islamabad have not changed. Radical Islamic groups are reviving their acts in Bangladesh and eastern India.

 

New Delhi: 'Bulls we win, bears you lose' – this kind of theory guides Pakistan policies in diplomacy despite having lost in their sinister designs several times.

With the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Islamabad is again dreaming about a 'transnational Islamic state' in the eastern front of India. No amount of bitter lessons can make Islamabad learn any lesson as it simply does not want to learn. All their policies and theories have failed, but the authorities in Islamabad have not changed.

Pak designs supported by Jamat-e-Islami want a highly radicalised Bangladesh. Subsequently, they want a transnational Islamic sub-region comprising Bangladesh, Muslim stronghold states of West Bengal, Assam and also Rohingya infested Arakan hills of Myanmar.

The designs were met with tough resistance by Myanmar in 2017, but the caliphate sympathisers screamed and cried in India. The project has not been dropped, and intelligence sources in India believe they revived their activities once the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. The drug money is allegedly being channelised effectively.

The indiscriminate killings of Hindus, targeting Durga puja Pandals and noted temples in autumn of 2021 did not happen just because of local issues.

If more recent history is any precursor to the future, the world and South Asia are destined to suffer many more devastating assaults.

Those in the know of things have suggested to Bangladesh's Directorate General of Forces Intelligence to be cautious about certain things, including movements of "so-called liberal thinkers, social workers and activists of various issues."

A source said some of these elements, including from Kolkata and other parts of India, could be tracked. Keeping these in mind, the Government of India has decided to enforce a much stricter regime vis-à-vis the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). A license number under the FCRA provisions is compulsory in India to receive foreign donations in a bank account. It is, therefore, no surprise that 6000 NGOs across the nation were denied the FCRA license numbers as per the latest order issued on January 1, 2022.

The Government of Bangladesh too has already taken some necessary precautionary steps.

There are reports that some radical organisations have 'regrouped' and resumed their operations, notwithstanding conflicts of interest between Taliban and ISIS-K.

A source engaged in the security apparatus in the northeast in the past says such radical elements have also started sending feelers to some tribal insurgent groups. "We ought to be doubly cautious as the demand for repeal of AFSPA has revived in Nagaland and could easily spread to other northeastern states," the source said.

Security analysts also say some of the armed militant groups are now in a desperate state of affairs with intra-organisation conflicts due to fund crunch and successful actions by law and order enforcing agencies against these groups.

Guerilla cadres and key leaders surrendered in Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura, leading to frustration in various ultra-camps. 67 cadres of Dimasa National Liberation Army (DNLA) laid down weapons on December 23, 2021, at Dhansiripar, Karbi Anglong, in Assam. One key HNLC cadre surrendered on December 30, 2021, in Meghalaya.

Two members of the outlawed Biswamohan faction of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) surrendered before the BSF on January 1, Saturday. The rebels, Khitish Debbarma and Swapan Debbarma, alias Bathar hail from the Khowai district adjoining the Bangladesh border.

 

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