Guwahati: The terror attack in Dhaka has prompted police in neighbouring Assam to sound police station-level alert in Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD), an area where 35 people with suspected links with a Bangladesh-based terror group has been arrested since last year.

BTAD inspector-general of police L.R. Bishnoi told The Telegraph that frisking had been intensified in the four districts considering the concern about possible terror attack by fundamentalist groups.

"Our teams, including commandos, today (Sunday) started checking all vulnerable places such as crowded markets, hotels and restaurants and railway stations in view of the alert sounded," Bishnoi said.

"During our investigation, it has come to light that some persons from Bengal had visited Assam to train these arrested persons on indoctrination and use of arms. They had a Bangladesh connection. Interrogation so far has revealed that they were planning to form a terror group on the line of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in BTAD. So it is suspected that they too have links with the Bangladesh-based groups," Bishnoi said.

A statement from Assam police headquarters said although JMB modules were present in the state, there was no information about ISIS footprint. "However, considering the gravity of the situation in Dhaka, all the superintendents of police have been instructed to gear up their intelligence machinery and keep sharp watch. We are also in close touch with all central intelligence agencies," it said. The SPs of Cachar, Karimganj and Dhubri and BSF along the India-Bangladesh border have also been asked to be on maximum alert.

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Assam director-general of police Mukesh Sahay said a general alert had been sounded across the state with focus on vulnerable and sensitive areas to thwart any possible terror strike.

Sources said the state police were taking the Dhaka attack very seriously as the ministry of home affairs and Intelligence Bureau had identified Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bengal prone to ISIS threat. The police said Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh had seen maximum number of youths checking information about the Islamic State and its activities on the Internet.

Sources said BTAD had become one of the most sensitive and vulnerable areas because of growing hatred among a section of people following the 2012 riots in which over 100 people were killed by "anti-Bangladeshi" forces. About four lakh people were displaced during the riot. Many of them had taken shelter in neighbouring Dhubri district (dominated by immigrants). Those involved in the riot said migrants from Bangladesh had encroached upon their land and changed the demography as the government failed to check infiltration. Those arrested after the massacre said they had been planning to form a terror group to avenge the killings.

The police said fundamentalist groups had been showing the video of the riot and the displaced people to encourage the riot victims to join terror groups. Last year, the police had busted two arms training camps by a suspected fundamentalist group in Chirang district in the BTAD and arrested 29 people from the district alone. The training camps were being run in the guise of martial arts training schools. Handmade guns and rifles were recovered from the camps.

"Our probe is on to find out if they are being financed by outside forces," a police official said. Sources said police fear that a terror attack in the BTAD could trigger a backlash on the immigrant population as the region already has armed groups (like anti-talks faction of NDFB) resulting in another riot-like situation.

Probe into religious extremism in the state revealed that JMB leader Sakil Ahmed, a Bangladeshi, had visited neighbouring Barpeta district in 2014 to form an extremist group to avenge 2012 riot in BTAD. Sakil had died in an accidental explosion of an IED at Khagragarh in Bengal's Burdwan district in October 2014.

Border alert

The BSF has been put on "very high alert" along the 443km Indo-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya, an official said today. "The force has been put on very high alert along the Indo-Bangladesh border following the armed attack in Dhaka," BSF inspector-general (Meghalaya Frontier) P.K. Dubey said, adds PTI.

A similar alert was sounded along the 856km border with Bangladesh in Tripura.

Dubey said he had spoken to officials of Meghalaya police for coordination and sharing of information as soon as news of the Dhaka attack came in. Meghalaya has over 100 "gaps" consisting of streams, rivers and drains apart from the unfenced 90km stretch along the 443km border with Bangladesh. Accordingly, the BSF has sought cooperation of all state and central intelligence units to ensure that no illegal cross-border movement takes place, he said. Police personnel posted close to the border has been alerted and asked to keep strict vigil in close coordination with the BSF, a senior police officer said.

A similar alert was sounded along the 856km long border with Bangladesh in Tripura also, a police official said today. He said the BSF and all other security forces, including state police, were alerted.

 

- The Telegraph, Calcutta