By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : India is faced with multiple threats from religious and ideological, secessionist and separatists organisations. The threat is from Islamic terrorists, Left Wing Extremists (LWE), secessionist organisation from the North-East and now even from communal forces. The challenge before the state is to protect the citizenry of this country, prevent radicalisation or disaffection of the youth or sections of the population, prevent and deny recruitment of the youth into terror/ insurgent organisations, keep terrorists out of the society, deny their access to funds, weapons and safe havens, strip the terrorists from their roots and prevent networking between insurgent groups and various terror organisations.

The entire gamut of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency require wholesome government response. Disconnected and fractured approach by the Centre and State Governments, with each agency operating independent of the other, is certainly a directionless and procrastinating effort that is bound to fail.The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a charge sheet in its Special Court in Guwahati against three arrested cadres of the PLA for “waging war against the country by indulging in terrorist activities, imparting training to the cadres of CommunistParty of India (CPI)-Maoist and supplying arms and ammunition to the outfit”.7 Reports indicate that the PLA was trying to forge a ‘Strong United Front’ (SUF) along with the CPI-Maoist and Kashmiri militants, backed by ISI and China.North-East and Bengal are emerging as major Jihadi corridors of peril. Al Qaeda affiliates from Bangladesh were reported in the past for having crossed over many times into Bengal when Bangladesh authorities were hot on their heels. Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) and the Ansarul Islam dominate Bangladesh’s jihadist landscape today.10 The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is emerging as another threat because they are unhappy with the stand of the Government of India on denial of entry of Rohingyas on humanitarian ground.

There is rise of anger amongst the Rohingya refugees against India for not being accommodative and also not using diplomatic pressure on Myanmar to stop persecution of Rohingya Muslims in the Arakan State.The recent arrest of seven members of Jamaat ul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB) in Assam and North East with West Bengal once again brought to light the threat posed by the jehadi elements in the State, while, violation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act to bring in funds to the North Eastern State has also become a matter of serious concern.since the time the activities of the JMB came to notice in 2014 following an accidental blast in Burdwan in West Bengal, at least 60 members of the Bangladesh based militant outfit have been arrested in Assam and most of them were from lower Assam districts. One of the four JMB members arrested recently in Barpeta, possessed a weapon and he spent most of his time in Malda area in West Bengal after escaping from Assam following the crackdown in 2014. Security agencies were on the lookout for him since then and acting on a tip off, he was arrested when he visited home. Sources said that the Government of India imposed a ban on the JMB after receiving reports that the outfit managed to establish a strong network in Bangladesh within 10 kilometers from the international border in India. If the outfit established such a network very near to the international border, it should not be difficult for the members of the outfit to sneak into Assam or West Bengal by taking advantage of the porous international border, sources pointed out. Moreover, elements of the JMB are apparently in touch with Islamic State and one faction of the outfit, which is now called the Neo JMB, is working as a wing of the IS. Moreover, the Indian sub continent unit of the Al Qaeda also has bases in Bangladesh and the possibility of such outfits trying to sneak into Assam and West Bengal to establish bases cannot be ruled out. Sources pointed out that with the deadline for publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is coming close, several persons and organizations have taken to the cyber space to create confusion in the minds of the people and the possibility of radical and insurgent elements trying to take advantage of the situation to establish bases in Assam cannot be ruled out. Though police and security forces are keeping a close watch on the situation, “one cannot read the minds of individuals and it is difficult to know if radical elements manage to win over certain people.” So far, majority of the youths who have been arrested for their involvement with outfits like the JMB are from lower middle class background belonging to semi urban localities. But sources admitted that no one really knows what is going on in the remote char areas, which are virtually out of security radar and there is very little presence of administration in such areas. Setting up of one or two police stations in chars will not help much in keeping a close watch on the activities of the people living there and there is need for regular patrolling and augmentation of intelligence gathering mechanism in such areas, sources added. Meanwhile, bringing in money from the Middle East by a Madrassa without informing the Government authorities is also a matter of concern. One head of a Madrassa was caught while Rs 8.45 lakh was brought by him through hawala transfer from Kuwait recently. It was found that over a period of time, the person brought around Rs two crore in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. No one knows whether the entire amount was utilized for the development of the Madrassa or used for any other purpose. This may also be a tip of the iceberg as no Government agency is aware how much money is being brought into the State through such illegal means and how it is being utilized, which is also a matter of serious concern, sources added.