Author: Dr. Richard L. Benkin
Publication: The Intelligence Summit Blog
Date: August 22, 2006
URL: http://intelligence-summit.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-evidence-supports-threat-of-south.html
A new Indian documentary provides visual and
other evidence that Islamist attempts to secure a base on Northeastern India
are "at an advanced state." According to the documentary by Indian,
Mayank Jain, "A conspiracy has been hatched by Pakistan's Inter Services
Intelligence and fundamentalists from Bangladesh to carve out an Islamic country
comprising Asom, Tripura, and West Bengal," as well as Bangladesh. The
three Indian states almost totally surround Bangladesh on the North, East,
and West. Bangladesh is the world's third largest Muslim nation and the seventh
largest nation on earth both by population, and it actually separates Asom
and Tripura from the rest of India.
As previously reported by me in The Intelligence
Summit ("Bangladesh to Go Islamist?"; June 1, 2006), Al Qaeda forces
have been steadily relocating from Afghanistan through Pakistan and Kashmir
to settle in neighboring Nepal. What is curious about that venue is that Nepal
is 89 percent Hindu with most of the remaining population Buddhist. But while
Nepal in not a candidate to become the next Taliban state, it serves as a
safe haven for Islamists with their eyes on transforming Bangladesh into one.
Nepal is almost contiguous with Bangladesh at one point and the porous border
presents a potential entry point for Islamists to infiltrate that nation and
skew its January election results in favor of their cohorts there. West Bengal,
one of the states mentioned in the documentary, is the land mass between the
two countries.
The documentary was based on reports by the
Indian Task Force on Border Management and from the former governor of Asom
(previously Assam), Lieutenant General (Retired) SK Sinha. It also contained
reports by former Indian Intelligence Bureau Chief TV Rajeswar and by journalist
and opposition leader, Arun Shourie. Sinha, in particular, considers the influx
of these Islamic fundamentalists, along with large numbers of Bangaldeshi
Muslims a threat to "security, demography, and integrity" of these
areas. The documentary alleges that they are now "the deciding factor"
in about one third of all Asom local elections. And the "demographic
invasion," as the documentary calls it, is continuing unchecked.
Observers have noted these demographic trends
since British control of the area, and made particular mention of them after
Bangladesh's successful revolution in 1971. There were those in Bangladesh
who argued that the territory to the new nation's east should be annexed "to
balance" the economy and society. While no serious talks were ever implemented
on that matter, the influx of Bangladeshis to that region has been steady
ever since.
Today, however, within the context of Islamist
imperialist designs, this established trend has taken on a new and more menacing
character. The immigrants are not simply impoverished Bangladeshis looking
for a better life but primarily trained Al Qaeda sympathizers. As early as
2004, there was concern about this with terrorists forced to leave their havens
in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In fact, United States offered its help in stemming
the flow; but for "procedural reasons," at least formally, India
declined the help. Little was done after the offer was made, which has allowed
this new sort of immigrant to flood the area. These new immigrants, according
to the documentary and Indian Intelligence are fundamentalists (about 20,000
from Northeast India and 3,000 from Bangladesh) with a direct link to al Qaeda,
which was providing them financial backing, arms, arms training. It also alleges
that "the trained youths have suicide squads," which conforms to
the terror bombing by Islamists in Bangladesh.
Intelligence sources further strengthen previous
analyses in these pages establishing the Al Qaeda presence in a chaotic Nepal
as a way station for its taking Bangladesh. These new allegations point to
an effort at a greater South Asian Islamist state. As noted by intelligence
sources in the documentary, Siliguri corridor, the sliver of land between
Nepal and these areas in India and Bangladesh, is the preferred entry point
for the infiltrators, as they exit their hiding places in Nepal.
The documentary often plays upon the longstanding
India-Bangladesh animosity and stone-throwing and suggests draconian measures
to seal the two nations' borders. But as the findings of Indian intelligence
and others in the area suggest, the infiltrators are not Bangladeshis; in
fact, their own statistics agree that the vast majority are not. A more detailed
check of would reveal pan-national origins stretching from Afghanistan and
Pakistan to Bangladesh and Northeast India. Their common characteristic is
not nationality but their deadly ideology.
Dr. Richard L. Benkin has written extensively
in and about Bangladesh and other matters relating to the Middle East and
the Islamist threat; and he can be reached through his web site, http://www.InterfaithStrength.com.
Benkin runs the site jointly with Bangladeshi anti-terrorist journalist Salah
Uddin Shoaib Choudhury. Choudhury, an anti-Islamist Muslim, was falsely imprisoned
and tortured until Benkin succeeded in gaining his release.
