Though the Government of Bangladesh, in the last Home Secretary-level meeting with India, softened its stand regarding presence of elements of anti-India forces in that country, no perceptible change has been noticed as yet on the ground, highly placed security sources said. In the last Home Secretary level meet between India and Bangladesh, held in the first week of last month, the Government of Bangladesh softened its attitude regarding the presence of the militants of the North East and other anti-India forces in Bangladesh soil and even assured to allow India to bring in floating border outposts to Assam for better patrolling of the riverine international border. The Government of Bangladesh had earlier denied the presence of Indian militant leaders in Bangladesh but in the last meeting, the Government officials assured to look into the matter and sought pinpointed information from India in this regard. The Government of India submitted lists of Indian ultra leaders in Bangladesh and their camps but so far no action has been seen on the ground, forcing the security agencies to suspect whether the assurances were mere eyewash.

Sources said that no effort has yet been made by the Government of Bangladesh to make the stay of Indian militant leaders in that country uncomfortable despite providing pinpointed information about the whereabouts of militants. The lists submitted to Bangladesh Government were prepared on the basis of intelligence inputs and revelations by the arrested militants. Sources also pointed out that Bangladesh is an INTERPOL member country and the Government of India had issued INTERPOL alerts long back on several top militant leaders including the leaders of the ULFA. But the Government of the neighbouring country never acted on the alerts and despite repeated requests by India, no action was taken to evict the camps and bases of the North East based militant groups from the territory of that country.

Security sources pointed out that the top leaders of most of the militant groups of Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya and even West Bengal are still using the territory of Bangladesh as safe haven and the militants are also bringing in weapons and explosives to the North East through Bangladesh. In recent times also, several consignments of arms and sophisticated explosives including programme time device switches brought into Assam by the ULFA through Bangladesh were apprehended, which proved beyond doubt that the militants are using the territory of the neighbouring country to carry out anti-India activities and "despite assurances by the Government of Bangladesh, we have not seen any perceptible change on the ground situation to say that the stay of the militants in Bangladesh has become uncomfortable," sources pointed out.

Sources alleged that several top militant leaders of the ultra groups of North East were even given protection by the DGFI, the intelligence agency of Bangladesh, which is working in close coordination with the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). Sources pointed out that there have been instances when militant leaders escaped bids on their life only because of the protection by the Government agencies.

The presence of jehadi elements in Bangladesh also posed a grave threat to the security of India as such elements could cross over by taking advantage of the porous border but Indian security agencies are yet to ascertain whether such groups receive any direct help from Government agencies. "Providing direct help to anyone is different from not taking action against someone and we are yet to ascertain whether the jehadi groups receive any direct help from the Government agencies," sources added.

Sources said that several recent acts of violence in different parts of India by jehadi groups were linked back to Bangladesh, which proved beyond doubt that jehadi elements inimical to India have established roots in the neighbouring country and taking advantage of the porous border, members of such groups managed to sneak into India to create disturbance. Though the jehadi elements based in Bangladesh have not been able to create any major disturbance in the North East so far, the intelligence agencies recently came across reports that at least six to seven jehadi elements managed to sneak into Assam in July this year with an assignment to create disturbance and last year, one such attempt was foiled by the security agencies.

Courtesy: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=sep0307/at01, September 02, 2007