01-21-2008, 09:22 AM
<b>Jihadis shifting base to N-E</b>
Rakesh K Singh | New Delhi
Pakistan-based terror outfits are turning their attention away from Jammu and Kashmir to North-East. Sustained interrogation of a Bangladeshi terrorist by the intelligence agencies in Guwahati has revealed a diabolical plot to revitalise militancy in the North-East through greater coordination between local terror outfits like ULFA and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Pakistan's ISI is actively engaged in aiding and abetting the entire exercise.
Arrested Bangladeshi terrorist S Alam, a pointsperson for ISI operations in the North-East, was nabbed by the security agencies from Guwahati recently. He hails from Uttara police station in Dhaka and is one of the founding members of Chhatra Shibir, a banned terror outfit in Bangladesh, intelligence sources said.
<b>Alam's interrogation has revealed that he was in touch with 24 militant outfits active in the North-East.</b> Acting for the ISI, he was also tasked with developing sleeper cells in the Muslim-dominated pockets of the North-East as well as along the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, sources said.
His interrogation also revealed that the ISI has directed the ULFA to share the profits of its illegal business concerns in Bangladesh and South East Asia.
ULFA is funded by a sophisticated network of extortion in Assam and other States of the region. Besides, the outfit is also into ISI-backed illegal business of circulating counterfeit Indian currency notes and drug-running for generating funds.
<b>ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua is worth approximately $110 million, </b>according to the American think tank Strategic Foresight Inc (Stratfor).
Stratfor specialises in global intelligence, analysis and forecasting.
ULFA chief, according to a Stratfor report, has business operations throughout India, Bangladesh and the Persian Gulf, including hotels, consulting firms, driving schools, tanneries, department stores, textile factories, travel agencies, investment companies, shrimp trawlers and soft drink factories.
<b>The militant group's core leadership is believed to be living in luxury in Bangladesh for the past 15 years. ULFA is believed to be funding political parties in Bangladesh in exchange for shelter and patronage from the political allies in that country. </b>
Flush with funds, ULFA continues to rely heavily on the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and lobbing grenades and half of the violence perpetrated by the outfit in Assam was reported from Guwahati, according to intelligence agencies.
Communication intercepts with the intelligence agencies suggest that the top brass of LeT and JeM have held regular talks with the ULFA leadership for the militant strategy to be adopted by them in the North-East, sources said and added that the implementation of the latest strategy in the region is being funded by ULFA at the behest of the ISI.
These outfits are planning to spread their influence in the region following the setback they have suffered at the hands of the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, said a senior intelligence official.
According to intelligence agencies, the North-East region remains a disturbed and sensitive area, with a high degree of militant violence in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. The lethality of ULFA violence in Assam has increased manifold with the killing of 175 persons, including seven personnel of the security forces, in 188 incidents last year till August. About 75 per cent of the violence and over 50 per cent of the incidents in Assam were accounted by ULFA-triggered terrorist acts.
Rakesh K Singh | New Delhi
Pakistan-based terror outfits are turning their attention away from Jammu and Kashmir to North-East. Sustained interrogation of a Bangladeshi terrorist by the intelligence agencies in Guwahati has revealed a diabolical plot to revitalise militancy in the North-East through greater coordination between local terror outfits like ULFA and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Pakistan's ISI is actively engaged in aiding and abetting the entire exercise.
Arrested Bangladeshi terrorist S Alam, a pointsperson for ISI operations in the North-East, was nabbed by the security agencies from Guwahati recently. He hails from Uttara police station in Dhaka and is one of the founding members of Chhatra Shibir, a banned terror outfit in Bangladesh, intelligence sources said.
<b>Alam's interrogation has revealed that he was in touch with 24 militant outfits active in the North-East.</b> Acting for the ISI, he was also tasked with developing sleeper cells in the Muslim-dominated pockets of the North-East as well as along the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, sources said.
His interrogation also revealed that the ISI has directed the ULFA to share the profits of its illegal business concerns in Bangladesh and South East Asia.
ULFA is funded by a sophisticated network of extortion in Assam and other States of the region. Besides, the outfit is also into ISI-backed illegal business of circulating counterfeit Indian currency notes and drug-running for generating funds.
<b>ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua is worth approximately $110 million, </b>according to the American think tank Strategic Foresight Inc (Stratfor).
Stratfor specialises in global intelligence, analysis and forecasting.
ULFA chief, according to a Stratfor report, has business operations throughout India, Bangladesh and the Persian Gulf, including hotels, consulting firms, driving schools, tanneries, department stores, textile factories, travel agencies, investment companies, shrimp trawlers and soft drink factories.
<b>The militant group's core leadership is believed to be living in luxury in Bangladesh for the past 15 years. ULFA is believed to be funding political parties in Bangladesh in exchange for shelter and patronage from the political allies in that country. </b>
Flush with funds, ULFA continues to rely heavily on the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and lobbing grenades and half of the violence perpetrated by the outfit in Assam was reported from Guwahati, according to intelligence agencies.
Communication intercepts with the intelligence agencies suggest that the top brass of LeT and JeM have held regular talks with the ULFA leadership for the militant strategy to be adopted by them in the North-East, sources said and added that the implementation of the latest strategy in the region is being funded by ULFA at the behest of the ISI.
These outfits are planning to spread their influence in the region following the setback they have suffered at the hands of the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, said a senior intelligence official.
According to intelligence agencies, the North-East region remains a disturbed and sensitive area, with a high degree of militant violence in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. The lethality of ULFA violence in Assam has increased manifold with the killing of 175 persons, including seven personnel of the security forces, in 188 incidents last year till August. About 75 per cent of the violence and over 50 per cent of the incidents in Assam were accounted by ULFA-triggered terrorist acts.