The Assam units of the CPI (M) and the CPI will work in tandem with the Left Front in West Bengal to prevent the Bangladesh-based fundamentalist groups from allegedly trying to create a ''Greater Islamic state comprising Bangladesh, Assam, Tripura and North Bengal'', according to CPI (M) Central Committee member Hemen Das. Mr. Das said the party was ''well aware of the evil designs by some fundamentalist groups from neighbouring Bangladesh, as rightly pointed out by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattcharjee, to cut off the vital chicken's neck in North Bengal connecting the North-East and Assam with the rest of the country''. ''The motive behind such move by the fundamentalist groups was reportedly to carve out an Islamic state as was evident from unchecked cross-border infiltration,'' Mr. Das alleged. CPI national executive member Pramod Gogoi demanded that the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, which was surviving on the Left support, should take all necessary steps to seal the border with Bangladesh in Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and West Bengal by 2005. Criticising the BJP ''for imparting a religious character'' to the infiltration issue in pursuance of its ''Hindutva agenda'', both the CPI (M) and the CPI said they would, like their counterparts in West Bengal, also make an all-out effort to isolate the BJP in Assam.

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