Kolkata, 4 June (H.S.): A major terror plot orchestrated by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), allegedly backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has been thwarted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kolkata Police. The group had been planning attacks in Bengal and the northeastern region of India, attempting to mobilize radicalized Rohingyas from Delhi, Rajasthan, and Jammu.
According to senior officials at Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar, the ongoing interrogation of arrested suspects has led to the identification of two more Rohingyas hiding near the Bangladesh border in North Bengal. Security agencies are probing whether they were part of a larger conspiracy aimed at carrying out a major attack in the state.
Investigations reveal that ARSA has received consistent backing from Pakistan’s intelligence agency. The group's chief, Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi — a Rohingya by origin but born in Karachi, Pakistan — received his education in the Middle East. He later founded ARSA in Myanmar’s Rakhine state to carry out armed operations involving radicalized Rohingyas.
Last year, Ataullah reportedly crossed into parts of Bangladesh and began planning terror operations, which brought him in contact with ISI handlers. Intelligence inputs suggest that a deliberate strategy was crafted to utilize Rohingya refugees in India as “unfamiliar faces” for launching subversive attacks — a pattern that echoes earlier incidents like the Bodh Gaya blasts, where Rohingyas were allegedly used as proxies.
In mid-March, Ataullah and five of his associates were arrested in Narayanganj, Bangladesh, by the country’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). Authorities recovered large sums of American dollars, Bangladeshi taka, and other foreign currencies from their possession. During interrogation, Ataullah reportedly confessed to operating under ISI's direction and attempting to activate sleeper cells across India using radicalized Rohingya individuals.
Following this breakthrough, Indian intelligence agencies launched coordinated operations across Rajasthan, Delhi, and Jammu. They identified at least twenty Rohingyas who had undergone ideological indoctrination and were being groomed as sleeper agents. Based on further inputs, two more individuals were apprehended from the Hili border region in North Bengal. They are currently being intensively interrogated.
Officials warn that ARSA is steadily attempting to entrench its operations in India, and its alleged ties with ISI pose a significant threat to national security. Central intelligence agencies have alerted multiple state governments to enhance surveillance on refugee settlements and suspected radical elements.
Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh