Author: Soumyajit Pattnaik
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: May 15, 2002
The detection of illegal radio stations
and the arrest of a few suspects in the Rajnagar area of Kendrapara district
on Monday has blown the lid off the activities of illegal Bangladeshi nationals,
and the security breaches made in the vicinity of sensitive defence installations.
The main transmission centre of the radio station was located near Dhamra
port, which is close to the missile testing range at Wheeler Islands, said
officer-in-charge of Rajnagar police station Alok Ranjan Ray .
Director General of Police N.C.
Padhi said further investigations into the operations of illegal radio
stations in Rajnagar and nearby sensitive areas like Dhamra and Wheeler
Islands are on.
One Baburam Dey has been taken into
custody. The police are looking for a second suspect identified as Ardhendu
Jana, Ray said. The arrested persons claimed they did not transmit any
sensitive information. But since the accused are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants,
the police suspect there is more to these radio stations than meets the
eye.
It is suspected that the transmission
centres were set up by Pakistani intelligence agencies as eavesdropping
posts near the Wheeler Islands, using human intelligence (humint) operatives.
It is also suspected that the radio stations were being used to disseminate
coded information within a limited radius to some illegal Bangladeshi immigrants
in the pay of foreign intelligence agencies.
In the past couple of years, several
Bangladeshis were arrested while moving suspiciously near the Chandipur
Interim Test Range. Many were booked under Section 14 of the Foreigners'
Act.
