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archive: The blast was waiting to happen

The blast was waiting to happen

Statesman News Service
The Statesman
June 24, 1999


    Title: The blast was waiting to happen 
    Author: Statesman News Service 
    Publication: The Statesman 
    Date: June 24, 1999
    
    SILIGURI, June 23. - Local authorities, wishing to remain
    unidentified, confided to The Statesman today that they had  been
    alerted, through "official channels" about an impending terrorist
    attack in North Bengal, similar to the one in New  Jalpaiguri station
    yesterday.  
    
    The fact that the attack "was waiting to happen" raises questions
    about the authorities' preparedness. Yesterday's  explosion showed it
    was totally wanting. 
    
    According to a railway security officer who witnessed the explosion,
    there had been no recent instructions to beef up  security at the
    station. The question becomes more pointed in the light of the
    incident at Falakata in Cooch Behar, where  bombs had been found under
    the railway tracks, just a day earlier. 
    
    Sources in intelligence asserted that North Bengal was no longer a
    "corridor" for ISI agents. Rather, the region had  turned into a base
    for foreign subversives. 
    
    Delhi police had arrested a ISI agent, Syed Abu Nasir, on 7 January.
    Nasir had been pushed into Siliguri from Bangladesh by the ISI, a
    Union home ministry report was to reveal later. 
    
    Nasir was interrogated by the FBI, on the suspicion that he was
    preparing to bomb US embassies in India at the behest  of Osama bin
    Laden. He was found to have "good access" to Azam Cheema and
    Zaki-ur-Rehman, top leaders of  Lashkar-e-Toiba. Members of the
    militant outfit are believed to be among the intruders in Kargil.  
    
    Only last December, a group of 13 Pakhtoon money lenders was picked up
    from Siliguri on suspicion of being ISI  agents. Subsequently, a
    couple of locals were arrested, also on the suspicion that they were
    acting as ISI agents: a girl  studying law at North Bengal University,
    and a school teacher from Bagdogra. The latter was arrested only last
    week.  
    
    The ISI's modus operandi is to lure prospective agents with money and
    "nice things of life", the sources said. If later these  people are
    unwilling, they are blackmailed into working for the agency. 
    
    There are so many ISI agents in the area, the sources said, that they
    could have easily executed the bomb attack on their  own - without any
    help from the Ulfa or any other outfit seeking self-determination. 
    
    The Kishanganj-Islampur area, the chicken neck measuring about 25 km
    in width, is "saturated" with ISI men, sources  say. A madrassa in
    Kishanganj has been attracting a lot of attention lately for its
    "suspicious" activities. The madrassa,  reportedly out of bounds for
    outsiders, has been getting a lot of foreign funds. It is also said to
    have bought land close to  Siliguri. 
    
    The large number of illegal migrants from the neighbouring country
    makes the area a happy hunting ground for the ISI.  The demographic
    pattern has undergone a significant change in the past few years
    because of the influx, thanks to  political parties and their "vote
    banks".  
    
    In Siliguri, the areas "under surveillance" include Champasari,
    Dangipara, the latter being in the heart of the town.  
    
    The North Bengal corridor became "more busy" after the ISI began to
    shift bases to Nepal from Bangladesh, in the  wake of New Delhi's
    improving relations with Dhaka. The demographic pattern in the
    Terai-Nepal region, including  Damak, has reportedly changed markedly
    too. 
    
    But the most distressing piece of information is that the ISI has also
    made a base in Jorethang, a town bordering Sikkim  and Bengal. Sources
    say the Pakistani intelligence agency is pushing its operations into
    Sikkim, getting closer to the  Chinese border.
    



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