Discomfiture for Bangladesh. Delight for India. This in short sums up June 27 developments that is going to be a benchmark in anti-militancy drive in the North-East. The recovery of ammunition and explosives at sleepy Bogra had all the ingredients of Purulia arms drop. It nailed the Bangla lie as never before. And exposed arms smuggling racket featuring the ATTF amongst others, and the ever-increasing militant camps on Bangla soil, now numbered at about 150, up from 60.

The arms haul is by far the biggest in Bangladesh. It made the Indian security forces up their ante as the nexus between North-East militants and the Nepalese Maoists through Bangladesh corridor is a matter of concern. It did take a few moments for the impact to register on the defence strategists. Once it did they returned to the drawing board.

The Bangladesh has emerged as the new hub of south Asian militancy. There is the presence on its soil of veteran Al Qaeda activists hiding from the preying eyes of the Americans. There are reports that some militant groups are dealing in uranium as the Islamists quest for a bomb of their own has gone into top gear.  Confirmation came in the form of recovery of uranium from a militant group in Bangladesh.

The Bogra ‘drop’ is a massive one. From a pineapple-laden truck found abandoned in the village, police collected 62,112 bullets with Chinese markings. These were neatly packed in 18 plastic bags. Powerful explosives (total weight 120kg) were found in 42 packets.  The Bangla police claim that the seizure were made from the house of Awami League (AL) leader Akhlakur Rahman Pintu' at Jogarpara village, near Rajshahi town. That was on June 27.

Three days later, the police recovered 3,994 rounds of bullets from a ditch near a brickfield at Jogarpara village. Around the same time, another police team stumbled upon 2,500 rounds of bullets at Sardarpara village. More recoveries followed -9,000 bullets packed in 18 packets and 24 kg of explosives from the toilet at the Raushan Ara Begum house and 3,000 bullets from a nearby forest hide out.

The recoveries were enough to blow up one fourth of the capital Dhaka.

Expectedly, Awami league leader and former Prime Minister Sheik Hasina found herself at the centre of the raging controversy. She had a tough time in fending off BNP attacks in Parliament. 

Further investigations brought egg on the BJP face. Intelligence and security personnel nabbed persons of Tripura origin - Kishore Debbarma, Altu Mian and Swapan Debbarma. Kishore is an ATTF activist. Altu is the driver of ‘the abandoned pine apple’ truck. Swapan is his helper. Their interrogation offered new insights.

The truck belonged to Ashis Debbarma, a known ATTF collaborator. He is untraceable but his uncle Jogesh Debbarma and cousin Chittaranjan Debbarma fell into the police net at Satcherri village in Habiganj district. This sleepy village is about 45 km north of Agartala inside Bangladesh.

Jogesh was once Indian citizen. He used to stay at Daigyabari in Sadar subdivision (of Tripura). He has settled down at Satchhari, Bangladesh, some years ago for reasons, which are still unclear. He is believed to be the kingpin of the arms racket. It was in fact at his teak garden that the ATTF was maintaining the base camp.

Twenty years ago Jogesh used to sell rattan made mats but now he is millionaire. He has a front -'Tripura Bahumukhi Samabay Samity '. But his main trade is now suspected to be financing militants and smuggling firearms.

At Jogesh Debbarma house, Bangladesh police found a 7.62 mm rifle and wireless sets.  It is probable by all means, according to the Tripura police, that these wireless sets were looted from the Indian security forces over the years.

The needle of suspicion for the May 7 attack on Simna colony is now pointed at Jogesh. It was a gruesome attack and the mayhem left 19 dead and turned many houses into ashes.Based on sketchy information and evidence, police and intelligence officials have drawn up a picture of the arms trade network. One theory is the Bogra ‘drop’ came from China via Myanmar.

Bangladesh intelligence sources also believe the ammunition was first smuggled into Tripura from Myanmar to Tripura and then transported across the border to Satchhari in Habiganj. The arms dealers then hired a local smuggling network to transport the munitions by a truck loaded with pineapples.

BSF and other Indian agencies pooh-pooh the Bangla conjecture. It is next to impossible with about 20,000 security personnel deployed in Tripura, they say with conviction. The Border is porous but it is easy to trade the ammunition.

So, it is possible that it was a long relay chain - truck was handed over to a group of smugglers in Bhairab; they in turn could have driven it to Bogra, who were to hand over the baton to.... It is likely that this group in Bogra was to drive the vehicle to Panchagarh. How many links the chain had is unclear but it is certain that it was a long, long chain till the truck reached the Nepal border.

Obviously, there was a communication break down or a mis-communication somewhere. That is the reason why the smugglers who drove the truck to Bogra failed to meet their contact.Apart from ATTF- Maoists nexus, involvement of Bangladesh political elements is a factor that has to be reckoned. If this suspicion is proved correct, it complicates the whole case.As of now, security and intelligence experts of Bangladesh are concentrating on the Nepali and Tripura angle. They believe the All Tripura Tiger Force with Left ideology   is working hand in gloves with the Maoists of Nepal. They contend that ATTF militants undertook the daunting mission to reach out to the Maoists in the Himalayan kingdom through either porous 'chicken neck' (North Bengal) or the Bihar border.

Till now, Bangladesh has flatly denied any militant camps on its territory. The Bogra ‘drop’ recovery exposes the hollowness of the claim.Only recently, there were reports of attack on ULFA supremo Paresh Barua near the Purbanchal Apartment in Dhaka, which also happens to be the Safe House of the Bangladesh Directorate General of Field Intelligence. Top Tripura militants like Joshua Debbarma and Biswamohan Debbarma besides Paresh Barua are known to be leading a luxurious life under pseudo names in Dhaka and are into thriving Hotel and Transport business.

In a sense, Dhaka playing host to them doesn’t come as a surprise. This is true to the tradition that dates back to the time the metropolis was a mere outpost for Pakistan. The guests in those good days included Laldenga, who went on to renounce the gun and become an elected chief minister of Mizoram.

MATTER OF CONCERN

Growing influence of Islamic outfits on National Liberation Front of Tripura (Biswamohan), which maintains base camps in Bangladesh, has resulted in discontent among the staunch Christian leaders and lower rung armed cadres of the militant organization. The organization, which is dominated by Baptist Christian militants and till recently used to carry out conversion of Tripura tribals to Christianity at gun-point allegedly at the instance of some missionary organizations, is now playing second fiddle to radical Muslim outfits in Bangladesh, according to intelligence sources.

NSCN (IM) worked as the mentor of the NLFT (B) in Bangladesh. All ISI funds and weaponry used to come to the Tripura militants through Naga militants. There were, of course, some direct interactions of the Tripura militants with the ISI and some of the NLFT leaders had also visited Islamabad in mid nineties. But by and large it was via NSCN (IM) that the ISI helped the NLFT and another organization ATTF. Of late, as the NSCN is inclined towards peace, the ISI is said to have begun direct cultivation of the NLFT through Muslim fundamentalist outfits of Bangladesh like Jamat e Islami, Harkatul Jehad and very recently with the Al Qaeda veterans presently holed up in Chittagong and other parts of Bangladesh.This development is a cause for worry to the staunch Christian militant cadres. They are worried at increasing influence of Islamic doctrine in the underground organisation on whom they are dependent for shelter in Bangladesh and other aids.

They had no hitch with the NSCN, as the Naga ultras goal was the Land of Christ while the NLFT was ‘struggling’ for a holy land. But the Islamic organisations like Jamat-e-Islami or Harkat ul Jehad or Al Qaeda preach a totally different ideology. Their basic idea and target is to create a Darul Islam or an Islamic world.
This is a virtual catch 22 position for NLFT. Some top guns opine that close relations with the Al Qaeda may boomerang as at international fora the ‘freedom struggle’ of the ‘Borok nation’, would be interpreted as ‘terrorist activities.’

At a recent meeting the Christian leaders at top and middle rung of the NLFT (B) pointed out that NLFT Nayanbashi faction, is  virtually reduced to a mere ‘dacoit party’, with the influence of Muslim elements of Bangladesh. The faction was formed after a vertical split in the main organisation three years ago.

Nayanbashi, himself a Christian, reportedly converted into Islam at the instance of his father- in-law Abu Mia, a notorious dacoit and smuggler of Sylhet area. Nayanbashi alias J Nokbar married for the third time to Tahera Bibi,  daughter of Abu Mian who has now taken over the organization. It was, in fact, through Abu Mian that the Jamat-e-Islami of Bangladesh is also influencing the NLFT Nayanbashi faction.

‘It is not only the question of joining hands with the ATTF that the NLFT Nayanbashi recently suffered a split as 28 of its cadres led by Swapan Debbarma rejoined the NLFT (B).’ ‘There was also the questions of too much influence of Abu Mian and radical Muslim organisations that angered the Christian militants of the NLFT (N)’, sources said. Nevertheless, in the absence of NSCN’s direct support, the present compulsion seems stronger and the NLFT leadership despite their religious reservation have to maintain links and work under the instructions of the ISI, Al Qaeda and other Muslim outfits.

Bridging Centre-insurgents gap only peace initiative: Zoramthanga

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga said bridging the gap between the Centre and insurgent groups was the most important initiative to be taken up for bringing about lasting peace.

Inaugurating a two-day seminar of North-East journalists on "Peace for Development and Prosperity: the Mizoram Model", the Chief Minister said the Centre had been very patient with the insurgents but had to be more patient in the peace process.

"Good will, not official formalities, is important to bring two sides to the negotiating table", Zoramthanga, who himself was a former rebel leader, said.

"We want to show other states of the region that peace pays and peace is good for the people, we were fighting for", he said.

"Our operations against the Indian Army might be successful, but the people we were fighting for were dying", he said adding it would be like a patient dying even after a succesful operation.

The seminar was jointly organized by the Federation of North East Journalists (FNEJ) and the State Information and Public Relations Department.

Mizo CM denies calling Meghalaya counterpart ‘silly’

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga denied calling his Meghalaya counterpart DD Lapang "a silly chief minister" as published in some media.

The news report, which appeared in a Kolkata daily, claimed that the Mizoram Chief Minister had ridiculed Lapang for allegedly making a fuss over Zoramthanga’s role as a peace negotiator for talks with the banned Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC).

Reacting to the report at a news conference here today Mr Zoramthanga said, "I have been misquoted and misinterpreted."

"All I can say that this is very irresponsible on the part on the newspaper to put my observations in a such light and this would only lead to bad blood between the two States," he added.

"What I said was that questioning my role and intentions to bring peace in the disturbed North-east would not be a very wise thing to do and I never made any personal comment on anyone," the Chief Minister clarified.

Quoting an earlier instance Mr Zoramthanga said, "Even when the Nagaland peace talks with NSCN (IM) was going on during the tenure of the former Congress chief of the State S. C. Jamir, I never uttered a word against him despite the fact that he belongs to our main Opposition party Congress. My main concern was the success of the peace process, which I was trying to facilitate".

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