E-Paper
Bengal tops list of states in arrest of ISI linkmen
More than one-third of those arrested in India in the past three years are from this state.
Bengal seems to be turning out to be a favourite hunting ground for ISI agents and linkmen. Out of a long list of 46 people arrested from all over the country in the past three years for collecting and sharing sensitive information with the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, as many as 16, or more than one-third, were from Bengal.
The report was recently released by the Union home ministry. All these persons were arrested between 2013 and 2016. Rajasthan and Punjab were second and third names on the list.
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“The numbers are actually disturbing. Among the 16 arrests in the state since 2013, as many as 10 were nabbed in 2015,” said an official from the Special Task Force of Kolkata Police who did not wish to be named.
Bengal shares borders with three countries --- Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan --- like no other state in the country. All the three borders are porous and they make it quite easy for subversive elements to move in and out of the state avoiding police, BSF and intelligence agencies.
Intelligence and police officials have long reckoned Bengal as a state which terrorists and militant fundamentalists use as a safe shelter. These numbers tend to give credence to this notion, said officers.
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Some point out that the actual situation is more alarming than what these figures represent. The October 2, 2014, Burdwan explosion blew the lid off a flourishing network of terror elements who were planning to overthrow the Sheikh Hasina government in Dhaka. NIA made as many as 30 arrests, most of them Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative who have strong links with Pakistan. NIA found out that JMB members were steadily spreading their network in Bengal’s districts such as Burdwan, Murshidabad, Birbhum and Nadia.
However, these elements are not represented in the piece of statistic as they are not connected to the ISI.
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On December 2015, the STF arrested three persons from the heart of the city --- Irshad Ansari, Ashfaque Ansari and Md. Jahangir. After interrogating them, STF officials zeroed in on three more, including the prime accused Sheikh Badal. They were accused of collecting and sending information on Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) --- where naval ships are built --- and Netaji Subhas Docks to the ISI. In the same year, an Indian Army rifleman --- Farid Khan --- was also apprehended from Siliguri by the Delhi Police’s crime branch.
In 2014, a retired army driver was also nabbed from Simulbari in North Bengal, and in 2013, another suspect was picked up from Binnaguri army cantonment in Jalpaiguri. Both confessed that they were engaged by ISI to leak valuable information on army movement.
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Police officers also pointed out that these arrests indicate terrorists and terror linkmen are not only using Bengal as a safe passage to enter India, but also targeting important establishments in the state.
“From Irshad Ansari we have recovered a hand-drawn map of GRSE. Even in case of other arrests, the accused have confessed that they were assigned with the task of sending valuable information related to different important establishments. The trend is really alarming,” said another security official.
