ISI-ULFA NETWORK EXPANDS

There is a long list of events that demonstrate the close ties of the ISI with the ULFA. The fact that General Pervez Musharraf has shed his uniform is not going to alter things as insurgency any where in India and by any group is not only welcomed by Pakistan but fomented vigorously for it serves its goal of causing death by a hundred cuts.

by ANIL BHAT

If the year 2007 began by ULFA giving the ISI a macabre new year’s gift by way of yet another genocide of Biharis and Hindi speaking people in Assam, then it ended with another gift to it by adding at least two more groups –Karbis and Adivasis- to the terror network in the State.

A diary of events only provides strong pointers to ISI-ULFA’s expanding terror network, particularly following the losses suffered by the latter after the year- long Indian Army/security forces operation against it.

DECEMBER 4, 2007: The locomotive of the 5959-Up Kamrup Express, a daily train between Howrah in Kolkata and Tinsukia in eastern Assam was damaged in an explosion triggered by suspected tribal Karbi militants at Khakhati in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district. Fortunately, over 400 passengers traveling then escaped unhurt and the train resumed its journey after the damaged locomotive was replaced.

DECEMBER 7: a Black Widow militant was killed and another injured following a gun battle with the police at Guruhari area under Dehangi police station, few kilometers away from Haflong town of insurgency-ravaged North Cachar Hill district, where police and Army had to intensify operations.

DECEMBER 10: One person was killed and 55 passengers were injured when 14 bogies of Brahmaputra Mail from Guwahati to New Delhi were derailed about 15 km from New Jalpaiguri junction at 10.55 p.m. Gas cutters were required to cut through the pantry car and few other bogies. Following the derailment, movement of trains to the north-east region had to be stopped.

DECEMBER 13: At least five persons were killed and four others seriously injured when a bomb blast rocked the New Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express near Sungajan Railway station of Assam’s Golaghat district at 1: 15 a.m. The police suspect All Adivasi National Liberation Army (AANLA)’s involvement in the explosion that rocked the high-security elite train that was traveling from Dibrugarh in Eastern Assam to New Delhi via Guwahati.

DECEMBER 15: An ISI operative, S M Alam, active in Assam and the north-east since 2006 responsible for all operational matters of the ISI there and under surveillance of the Assam police for sometime was nabbed in Guwahati. He is a member of Jamati Islami and Chatra Sibir in Bangladesh and joined the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in 1993. He underwent training in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the police claimed.

The mediahas been writing of ISI’s activities in India’s North Eastern region (NER) via Bangladesh since early 1990, shortly after United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) boss-man Paresh Barua and his close coterie escaped to Bangladesh, a statement laid on the table of House of Assam Legislative Assembly, under Item No. 12, dated 6.4.2000, by then Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta stated that Assam Police had gathered sufficient evidence to prove that ISI has been actively involved in fomenting violence and terrorism in the State. Specifically these activities were stated as: promoting indiscriminate violence in the State by providing active support to the local militant outfits; creating new militant outfits along ethnic and communal lines by instigating ethnic and religious groups; supply of explosives and sophisticated arms to various terrorist groups; causing sabotage of oil pipelines and other installations, communication lines, railways and roads; promoting fundamentalism and militancy among local Muslim youth by misleading them in the name of ‘jehad’ and inciting communal tension between Hindu and Muslim citizens by way of false and highly inflammatory propaganda.

This aim of ISI has steadfastly continued, expanding its NER network over the years since early 1990. Neither the India-Pakistan peace process begun in early 2004, nor the caretaker government taking charge in Bangladesh caused any change in ISI’s terrorist activities in NER. In fact after the beginning of the peace process not only was ISI’s NER operations were stepped up but began extending to all parts of India.

General Pervez Musharraf taking his uniform off at long last is not at all expected to change the ISI’s efforts to keep India on the boil. If reports of two terrorist training camps being destroyed by Bangladesh’s caretaker government are true, it will hardly cause any dent to the vast array of NER’s terrorist groups’ elements camping there. In any case, Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, which has been part of ISI’s Eastern operations since early 1991, has only consolidated more power during the current caretaker government’s term.

India’s sent a cargo aircraft of Indian Air Force and four amphibious ships of Indian Navy with food and relief materials for the cyclone affected people of Bangladesh during November and December 2007. An unexpected development following this was Bangladesh security forces destroying one camp of NER terrorists in its territory. That makes no difference to the rest of many groups , including ULFA’s top leadership, ensconced there and nullifying whatever gains may have been made by the over year long Army operation in Assam.

While illegal Bangladeshi migrants actively assisted by ULFA are dished out ration cards to increase vote banks in various constituencies of Assam, security forces are fated to keep ‘managing’ terror- for how long?