Murshidabad violence: Intelligence agencies trying to track links of Bangladeshi fundamentalist groups

Kolkata, April 15 (IANS) With the Union Home Ministry having received initial information about some role of illegal Bangladesh intruders behind the violence at Murshidabad, intelligence agencies are trying to track the exact Bangladesh-based fundamentalist groups which might have played a role behind the entire issue.

Sources aware of the development said that the names of three Bangladesh-based fundamentalist groups are possible since these three groups had been quite active for some time in this district that has international borders with Bangladesh.

These three groups are Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HUT), and Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT).

However, considering the geographical locations of the pockets where the tension and violence had been maximum this time, especially Samserganj, the possibility of ABT playing some role behind the latest violence sounds more logical.

On the eastern side of the international borders at Samserganj and Dhulian, is the Bangladeshi district of Chapai-Nawabganj, which is considered the stronghold of ABT. Sources added that because of this geographical proximity, the chances of ABT’s involvement in the latest developments at Murshidabad are most likely.

To recall, in December last year, Sajidul Islam, the most-wanted activist of ABT, was also arrested from Murshidabad following joint operations by the cops of the special task force of West Bengal Police and Assam Police.

Islam is also the cousin brother of another most-wanted ABT activist, Shad Radi aka Shab Sheikh, who was also arrested earlier last year from Kerala. Then, there were inputs from central intelligence agencies about ABT activists trying to be active in the two districts in West Bengal that have porous international borders with Bangladesh, namely Murshidabad and adjacent Nadia.

It is learnt that the inputs from the central intelligence agencies, as well as from the higher officials of the central armed police forces posts in the region, the Union Home Ministry is currently assessing the situation at Murshidabad, which has started getting back to normalcy from Tuesday.

The CAPF was deployed at Murshidabad following an order from a special division bench of the Calcutta High Court on April 12. In the order copy, the special division bench observed that measures taken by the West Bengal government initially to control communal unrest in Murshidabad over protests against the newly promulgated Waqf (Amendment) Act were inadequate.

The special division bench also observed that had the CAPF deployment been done earlier, the situation would not have been so “grave” and “volatile”.

--IANS

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