NEAT RISK

 

THE nationwide Intelligence-led ‘Operation Praghat’ has swooped on a major terror plot targeting the North-Eastern States with the help of extremist groups from Bangladesh having close links with Pakistan. Recent developments in the N-E, where suspected members of sleeper cells having links with Bangladesh-based Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) were arrested by the Special Task Force and seizure of big cache of ammunition, underline the security threat in the region which is a vulnerable target due to its porous borders.

 

Along with the arrest of members of the ABT, which is an affiliate of the Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), the last few weeks have seen seizure of big drug consignments in the N-E States and also modern weapons thus underscoring rising concerns of terrorism and cross-border attempts to destabilise the region. All the developments, including the continuing unrest in Manipur, have raised alarms for the security as well as political leadership as it coincides with the shifting geopolitical dynamics. The N-E has remained on the target of anti-India forces for long and their activities have gained pace since the development push by the NDA government to bring the region in mainstream. Rattled by the development pitch, rebels in the region with the help of cross-border networks and insurgents have been stoking unrest in various forms. The ethnic clashes in Manipur also bore a clear imprint of external forces sponsoring ammunition via different hidden routes. The situation has now taken an alarming turn after the political chaos in Bangladesh. A complex web of regional instability has been acting to foment unrest with the help of cross-border forces.

 

The discovery of sleeper cells of the Bangladesh-based terror network in various N-E States under the ‘Operation Praghat’ has come on the back of some key developments including a thaw in the relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh, increased sea trade between the two countries and surge in arms caches in India. All these developments are inter-linked and pose a grave security threat to India in the North-Eastern region. The arrest of sleeper cell members in Assam, West Bengal, and Kerala sheds light on ABT’s plan to widen its network with the help of Al-Qaeda operatives based in Pakistan and having close links with radical groups based in Kashmir and N-E States. The sleeper cell’s objective was to exploit the region’s vulnerabilities by recruiting local youth and using the strategic Siliguri Corridor as a base for terror activities, as the investigation suggests. The corridor is critical for India’s security and any disruption here could isolate the North-Eastern region.

 

It was a strategic area in focus of ethnic and separatist groups in the 70s and 80s when N-E remained grossly neglected by the ruling leadership in New Delhi. It has seen a big change in the last seven-eight years when the Modi Government put the N-E on priority list as a gateway to Eastern Asia. The continued efforts to cause unrest in the region is a result of the positive change in status quo brought by the NDA. It has crippled illegal arms and drugs trade by the mafia operating out of provinces in Myanmar. Now, with covert support from Pakistan, China and Bangladesh-based terror networks another attempt is being made to create terror in the N-E region and cut it off from India. New Delhi has to bring all the hands on the deck to face the evolving threats and counter those with a strategic planning without disturbing communal harmony in the N-E. The situation calls for a three-pronged strategy with active involvement of the military, central government leadership and community leaders having a good hold in their respective States. The risks are too serious to be ignored.