Assam Blasts - Operation Pin Code?

As 13 bombings rocked four districts, including the capital of Assam with clockwork coordination at noon on October 30, 2008, over 80 were killed and over 300 injured. Apart from being the worst of a series of terrorist attacks over two decades by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) or any other group in Assam, they are also part of a well-planned programme of targeting the festival season (Dussehra to Diwali) in India.

Of course, the ULFA categorically denied its hand in these attacks. Ironically, this could be the truth but with a terrible twist to it. In my July 29, 2008 column in The Asian Age, ‘Seasons of Surrender in Assam’, I had written that ULFA's top leadership in Dhaka had been working hard at recruiting Bangladeshis to make up for heavy casualties suffered in operations carried out by the army and by the police since late 2006 and due to the loss of public support, there were no takers amidst the Assamese youth. That many of these new Bangladeshi 'recruits' to ULFA are members of Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HUJI-B) was confirmed by September 26, when, based on specific intelligence collected by mobile interceptors, the army launched an operation killing seven terrorists who had made an entry through Dhubri district bordering Bangladesh. Seven automatic pistols, three radio sets, large quantities of explosives, detonators and documents besides Bangladeshi, Indian, and Chinese currency notes were recovered from the dead terrorists. What also emerged were their plans to carry out bomb blasts in many places with Guwahati being one of their main targets.

A look at the district map of Assam provides pointers to the map of destruction. Clockwise from Assam's Western-most district Dhubri, are the four targeted districts Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Barpeta and Kamrup, where Guwahati is located. The attack owes its success to the deployment of operatives, effective networking and communication, sufficient quantity of explosives and mobility and money in these districts.

The relationship of ULFA's top honchos in Bangladesh with HUJI-B dates back at least to 1992 with their members crossing the border as reinforcement after the loss of ULFA manpower in security forces' operations that lasted over a year. There will be no lack of motivation and so Dispur should ensure sound intelligence and gear up to try to pre-empt similar attacks that are bound to follow.  

In pursuance of the Survival 2007 campaign, the Ao (Ao Naga tribe) Kaketshir Mongdang (AKM) undertook comprehensive investigation on the problem of unabated influx of illegal migrants into the state and the region, particularly from Bangladeshi states. Posted by www.jagoindia.com on May 26, 2008, is a report co-authored by Aodangnok, President, AKM and Jamir, Vice-President, AKM and Convener, Survival 2007 that merits mention here (islamicterrorism.wordpress.com/category/state/north-east/): “We discovered that although [the] influx of illegal migrants to Nagaland is purportedly economic driven, the imminence of a sinister politico-religious design of some external fundamentalist agencies cannot be ruled out”. Information they garnered was:
- “The Muslim League had in 1947 prior to India's and Pakistan's Independence drawn a political map of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) which indicated the whole of present-day NE India falling within East Pakistan territory. Based on this, some utopian fundamentalist Islamic agencies are reportedly endeavoring to carve out an Islamic state out of NE India and then assimilate it with Bangladesh to form “Greater Bangladesh” or “Brihot Bangladesh” or “Bangistan”, as they term their utopian Islamic State.
- Brigadier DK Bux of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and Abdul Hasan Muadish, founder of Jamat-e-Islam met at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on December 15, 2004 and jointly declared Operation Pin Code. The reported objective of Operation Pin Code is to cause havoc and corruption in North Eastern India. The Islamabad-based Islamic Development Bank has sanctioned 35 million dollars for the Operation. Muttahida Jihad Council (United Jihad Council) of Jammu and Kashmir is also reported to be roped in to spread bloodshed in the region.
- The Islamic Bank of Saudi Arabia sponsors up to a sum of Rs.1,00,000/- to any Muslim migrant who marries a local woman. Perhaps this serves them to further their utopian and sinister design of Islamization of North East India by destabilizing the social fabric of the indigenous peoples of the state and the region.
- The Muslim Liberation Front of Burma led by Maulana Abdul Qadir Mullah is co-operating with the Bangladeshi Islamic extremists to further their cherished dream of carving out Greater Bangladesh. This nexus is financed by the Saudi Arabia based Rabitat-al-Islami, as per reports.
- Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islamic (HUJI) under the leadership of Sheikh Farid and based in Chittagong, Bangladesh, was formed under Bin Laden's Al Qaeda patronage to further their Greater Bangladesh dream. "Further, AKM once again strongly reiterates that not a single illegal migrant shall be allowed to walk the Naga soil within our traditional jurisdiction".

Pakistan's military establishment and the ISI effectively exploited India's communal politics and succeeded in establishing a country-wide terrorist network with tie-ups and out-sourcing. India should have no doubts about the ISI's influence continuing in many forms, including through Lashkar e Taiyyaba, Jaish e Muhammad, Taliban, Al Qaeda and a number of tanzeems. Its control over organizations like Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and many other innocuous sounding organizations and madrassahs is and will remain in a pincer mode from both Pakistan and Bangladesh until enough political will is exercised to meaningfully neutralise them.

Pakistan's third dictator President Gen Zia ul Haq's plan of “bleeding India with a thousand cuts” to avenge the loss of East Pakistan, was aimed at trying to tear India asunder. Musharraf took this aim forward and as far as Pakistan's military is concerned this agenda has continued unabated, notwithstanding the peace process begun in early 2004, which only silenced guns between the two armies on the borders. Even if Kashmir is handed over on a platter, the process of keeping India on the boil will continue until Pakistan's military calls the shots, which it has during all tenures of civilian rule in the past 61 years and is expected to continue doing unless subjugated or deconstructed. If that ever happens, there will still be the jihadi network to contend with.

Thus, it is high time that the leadership at the centre and at the states avoids clichéd rhetoric and political semantics and instead, tightens intelligence and optimizes security resources to go for terror's jugular without being side-tracked by new nomenclatures.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views either of the Editorial Committee or the Centre for Land Warfare Studies)