Features- ISI Eastwards: Brewing Border Boil-Ups

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ISI Eastwards: Brewing Border Boil-Ups
By Anil Bhat
The recent incidents on the India-Bangladesh border have brought into focus again, the feverish efforts by Pakistan to up the ante in India’s vast Eastern region, which includes Bengal, Cooch-Behar and the seven-sister States of the North-East, through Bangladesh where the ISI presence has multiplied much ever since the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) came into power. The illegal entry of Bangladeshi nationals dates back to the period before its liberation, when the Punjabi dominated Pakistani martial-law Government in erstwhile East-Pakistan began suppression of the Bengalis causing a refugee problem which convinced Indira Gandhi to take military action resulting in the third Indo-Pak war of December 1971 and also the creation of a new nation. But the problem of illegal entry only increased manifold since then. It does need to be mentioned that, basically and initially, these intrusions were caused by a line penned most thoughtlessly, or maybe, even callously, by Radcliffe, to partition India before the British left. That line caused a human problem which could have been resolved after the liberation of Bangladesh. Pakistan, since 1947 has religiously (pun intended) maintained a single point agenda of India-baiting/ bashing/war-mongering, with no priority whatsoever, for striving towards development of a newly born nation. Meanwhile, in Pakistan and its Eastern part - severed from it since 1971- populations proliferated and with the former, so did all kinds of weaponry, not to mention the spread of terrorism by twisting interpretations of religion out of shape. So, while suppression of a section of its people failed earlier, ‘weaning’ them away from their rich cultural roots towards fundamentalism and intolerance became an agenda since the early 1970s which with BNP’s return to power is in full swing. An important part of this game-plan, in place since 1991, was to establish a substantial foothold of the ISI in India’s North-Eastern region with the help of ULFA (and through ULFA, other insurgent groups of the region) with the aim of initiating a number of processes to destabilize it. The human element of the problem is that with the burgeoning population and unemployment in Bangladesh and labor opportunities available in India, attracts many a Bangladeshi to the cycle of crossing over to work and returning with the earnings. However, ever since Pakistan mended its distant fences with Bangladesh it has tried to use the migrant Bangladeshi worker for its own nefarious designs against India. Distinguished columnist, author and an authority on Bangladesh affairs, Hiranmay Karlekar, during a discussion with this writer explained,"….it is not just a question of infiltration but it being used as a cover for sending in agents with the specific aim of preparing an extensive infrastructure in all of the East and North-East India for terrorist activities which include perpetuation of ghastly attacks like the one on the American Center at Kolkata on January 22, 2002. Also we should not forget that Syed Abu Nasir who was caught in June, 1999 in Delhi, is a Bangladeshi who had come with a group to blow up the US Embassy in the capital as well as one more US Consulate in the country. That is why Bangladesh is opposed to India’s efforts to prevent infiltration…." He further elaborated that Pakistan plans to take advantage of US’s preoccupation with Iraq by orchestrating a joint action in which it pushes in a fresh wave of terrorists across the Line of Control in J & K this summer after the snow melts, while Bangladesh steps up infiltration of migrants all along India’s borders with it. He also mentioned about a list of 88 insurgents, including Sanjit Dev Barman of the ATTF and Paresh Barua and Anup Chetia of ULFA, presently in Bangladesh which was conveyed to Dhaka during the last meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Working Group. According to highly placed sources of the Ministry of External Affairs, Dhaka has been quite intransigent on the issue of illegal migrants entering or staying in India, or for that matter, the entry or presence of Al Qaeda leaders and cadres who, incidentally met India’s North-East insurgent groups’ leaders. While India’s diplomatic relations with Pakistan have touched an all-time low, with Bangladesh they have deteriorated considerably in the recent past. Over the years, for a number of politicians in India, clusters of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in various parts of it began to be seen as ideal vote-banks. Many were dished out ration cards, which for a normal Indian citizen can amount to a cumbersome procedure to possess. However, the problem has reached such proportions and the security environment, thanks to the Pakistani establishment’s long-standing commitment in organizing and exporting terrorism, has become so bad for India that Deputy Prime Minister cum Home Minister, LK Advani insisted on making a beginning. What was seen as the first of incidents-in Mankachar, Meghalaya, in 2001 was also indicative of how situations on the India-Bangladesh border could erupt as well as the relationship between the two countries’ border guardians. In a feature written on that incident this writer had mentioned the requirement for increasing the strength of the BSF. The need now is only greater. With that will and a change of mindset with a determined effort to take some hard measures to tighten the security of the entire region as any compromise of the security of any part of this region will have grave long-term consequences on the security of the country. The message to all concerned that India cannot be taken for granted and that the cost of doing so will be prohibitive must be unambiguously and most convincingly be conveyed on the ground and through diplomatic channels. Making mayhem while bush fires The ULFA, of late, is back at its old game of attacking soft targets from safe distances. This time around, it seems to have got its act together with mortars, supplied with training, by Pakistan’s ISI, through kind courtesy, Bangladesh’s Directorate General Forces Intelligence. While the attack on the Indian Air Force base at Borjhar, though audacious, probably owing to poor planning and training, fortunately failed to cause any loss of life, the one on the Digboi oil outfit caused quite a loss of valuable oil. Mortars, classically the infantry’s integral mini-artillery, are deadlier in the hands of terrorists as they are used against hapless innocents and not trained soldiers in trenches or bunkers. They are also ideal as distance-weapons, a modus which a group like ULFA greatly value as they are not exactly cut out for close - quarter attacks. Their earlier distance - weapons were crudely assembled indigenous explosive devices, the expertise in which was shared with it by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. It may be recalled that during Operation Rhino, for the first time the ULFA had tried and succeeded in blowing up a mini-bus carrying a leave-party of soldiers. But then IEDs do not provide the kind of stand-off distance which mortars do. But that does not mean that IED modus has been abandoned by ULFA, as proved by their latest attack on a bus which killed seven and injured fifty-five – all innocent civilians – on 16th March, 03, just as this feature is being written. What kind of saviors of Assam were they ever claiming to be, if the mass–graves at Lakhipathar forest can be recalled? While ULFA’s old ideologues-associates-trainers like the LTTE and NSCN (IM) as well as the Bodos have opted for peace and negotiations, this group is not in a position to do so, as so far it is quite effectively enslaved by the ISI in Bangladesh, where its top cons reside. And one of the major briefs of the ISI to ULFA is no negotiations but if there are cracks in the ULFA on this issue as stated in a Guwahati datelined report in The Hindustan Times of 13th March 2003, then such a development should be most welcome and exploited further. The pattern building up is that Pakistan keeps India’s security forces busy with terrorism in J&K, the North-Eastern region and in many other parts of the country, including the capital, while Uncle Sam’s administration is near - maniacally preoccupied in Iraq. This preoccupation also makes for ideal conditions for Pakistan to send its old friends, al-Qaeda’s escapees to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Bangladesh apart from its own (or is it?) Peshawar. The implementation of the inter-related aims of Talibanising Bangladesh and attempting like hell to destabilize India has indeed begun. In the third serial of this feature, this writer brought out some of the steps taken by the ISI to suppress the media in Bangladesh. The Asia - Pacific Desk of the International Headquarters of Reporters Without Borders (RWB- Reporters San Frontie‘res) recently released a report of intimidation of Bangladesh’s media. Welcoming the release of Reuters stringer Enamul Haque Chowdhury after nearly three months in prison, RWB deplored the arrest of Dilip Kumar, correspondent of the daily Prothom Alo in Nikli (in the northern district of Kishoreganj), and physical attacks on six reporters by police and Islamist militants. It called on Bangladesh’s Interior Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury to free Kumar, who was arrested after reporting on violence during recent local elections. The organization also welcomed the suspension of four policemen who beat the reporters and demanded an investigation into an attack on journalist Rafiqul Tuhin in Habiganj, northeastern Bangladesh. Chowdhury, who works for the Government news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha as well as for Reuters, had been arrested on 13 December last year after writing about bomb attacks on four cinemas in Mymensingh and was badly tortured by his interrogators. The authorities also twice defied orders by the High Court to free him from a Dhaka prison. A week before he was released, one of his lawyers, Tanjib-ul Alam, told RWB that he feared he would be arrested again if he was freed on bail. Kumar was arrested at his home in Kishoreganj district on 3 March after a complaint against him by members of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) who accused him of "violence" and "vandalism." He had recently reported on violent incidents and fraud in local elections, angering BNP officials who then filed a bogus complaint to get him jailed. Police beat five journalists at the entrance to a Dhaka hospital on 4 March. Monir Hossain, correspondent of the daily paper Sangram at the hospital, was attacked by four men who pretended to be journalists. Colleagues intervened and the men were arrested. But journalists Abu Saleh Akand (Sangram), Osman Gani Babul (ABAS news agency), Latif Rana (the daily Mawroze) and Abu Sufian Titu (Bangladesh Today) then saw police take bribes from the attackers in exchange for freeing them. When the reporters protested, police clubbed them. The injured journalists, helped by a journalists’ association, got the policemen suspended. Rafiqul Tuhin, correspondent of the daily Janakantha was attacked at Habiganj on 1 March by supporters of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami, which is part of the ruling coalition. He was starting up his motorbike in front of the offices of the local paper Dainik Bani, when a gang of 20 people armed with knives and hockey-sticks attacked him. He received serious injuries to his head, hands and knees and was taken to hospital. A few days earlier, he had reported on a rape involving a Jamaat-e-Islami activist. He then got death threats. None of the attackers have been arrested. Very shortly after the Non-Aligned Movement summit at Kuala Lampur, the intimidation and expelling of Indian software professionals by the Malaysian authorities, claiming they were illegal immigrants has raised a strong suspicion of Pakistan’s dirty tricks department’s role being extended even further Eastwards. The possibility can certainly not be ruled out, given the Indian Prime Minister lashing out at the Pakistani President’s pet theme parroted out of context yet again, as well as the Malaysian President whose stand appeared to be much closer to Pakistan than to India. While targeting foreign professionals, which Malaysia needs, can only harm its own interests, India’s response should be appropriate and its Eastern flank well covered. Old links in NE India and new ones in South East Asia. It was in 1956 that the Pakistan Government invited Zhukuto Sema, the then self-styled (SS) director of Intelligence of the Naga Federal Government, to discuss the feasibility of a visit by Angami Zaphu Phizo, President of the Naga National Council (NNC). As things transpired, Phizo, who escaped to erstwhile East Pakistan in 1957, realized that Pakistan’s interest was to use the Nagas against India and not any sympathy with their cause or their aspirations. However, Pakistan advised Phizo to go to UK to take up the issue there as it was British rule and its rather abrupt end which was the cause of the dispute between the Nagas and the Indian Government. The Pakistan Government arranged for everything for Phizo’s journey and promised him ‘moral support and military aid’ in return for ‘concessions’ which Pakistan was to receive on Nagas achieving independence. Having reached this understanding with the Pakistan Government, Phizo departed for London from Karachi on 7th March 1960, with instructions to NNC cadres to go to East Pakistan for weapons and training. Special emphasis in their training program was given to firing of 2" mortars, handling of bombs and explosives for sabotage, jungle warfare and night operations. The training camps were set up at Rangamati, Ruma, Bandarban, Ukhia, Alikadam and other places in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The ‘moral support’ was provided by way of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Ali, making a statement on 7th October 1962 supporting the Naga cause and condemning ‘atrocities committed by Indian Security Forces in Naga-land’, followed by an incendiary propaganda campaign on Radio Pakistan. A typical vitriolic broadcast, as on 23rd August 1967, stated, "….Our (Pakistan’s) struggle for freedom has its impact on other areas also. Today the Bharati Nagas are following in our footsteps. These Naga nationalists are fighting against the colonial power of Bharat as the Kashmiris are doing.’ Meanwhile, China too had got into the act of fishing in troubled waters. With its influence on Myanmar (then Burma) and its warming relationship with Pakistan- a country conceived in two parts, the Eastern one bordering India’s vast North-Eastern region - all made for an ideal mix to fan the flames of a number of insurgency movements there. Maoism had some appeal with groups of the North-East which was reflected in the nomenclatures of some of the armed movements, one of which, in Manipur, gave itself the same name as the Chinese armed forces, i.e., People’s Liberation Army. The next movement to receive support, quite like the Nagas did from Pakistan, was the Mizo National Front (MNF). The MNF was allowed to set up training camps in the CHT with liaison offices at Dhaka and Chittagong, all of which were forced to shift to Myanmar after East Pakistan’s Bengalis’ liberation from West Pakistan’s suppressive Punjabi -dominated military regime and the creation of Bangladesh in December, 1971. In 1972, the Pakistani Consul from Yangon (then Rangoon) visited Laldenga, the head of MNF, in Arakan and arranged travel documents for him and his aides to visit Karachi. On arrival at Karachi this group was given VIP treatment till Laldenga’s departure for UK in 1975. The Chinese raised a guerilla training center for the Nagas, Mizos, Kukis and Meiteis while an airstrip was constructed near Rangamati, in the CHT, to train them in air operations. Despite strong diplomatic demarches from India, Pakistan kept denying any links with these groups. Its lies got exposed when some of the rebel Naga leaders, including SS ‘general’ Thinsullie and his deputy, SS ‘brigadier’ Nidilo, along with some Mizos surrendered to the Indian Army at Dhaka on 22nd December 1971, while the bulk of the NNC and MNF cadres disappeared into the CHT.The equations of China and Myanmar with India have changed since then. The Mizos, who opted for peace in the 1980s, have indeed prospered, while the rebel Nagas, after some years of a ‘cease-fire’, are presently at the negotiation stage with the Indian Government. At least one major point proved is that three attempts by Pakistan of destabilizing India through Nagas, Mizos and the ‘Khalistan’ terrorist movement have failed. But this must not at all make the Indian Government complacent because as far as Jammu & Kashmir, the North-Eastern region and the rest of the country is concerned; Pakistan is working overtime to create whatever kind of chaos, wherever and whenever possible. In fact, since the George Bush administration got busy with Iraq, Pakistan not only stepped up the ante all over India from almost all around, but has moved further Eastwards to South-East Asian countries with historic roots of Hinduism, where Islamic population over the post World War II decades increased widely, with a specific aim of trying to sabotage Indian interests there. While the first salvo came from Malaysia almost immediately after the recent Non-Aligned Movement meet, when Indian software professionals were targeted by being treated as illegal migrants, the other is an ominous development of arranging to move at least 50 Indonesian Al Qaeda members to Bangladesh, which, in addition to being the source of the illegal migrant invasion to India, is also a base for launching anti-India activities. These Indonesian Al Qaedas could not possibly be in Bangladesh for philanthropic reasons. Escaping American pursuers could certainly be one reason but it also makes a good aim-plus to use them against India in a region where there are many who share a similarity of facial features with them. Even at the cost of sounding compulsively repetitive, it is reiterated that New Delhi must keep a sensitive finger on the pulse of its left upper-limb extending Far East and take all steps to keep that flank very well covered.
(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)

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