Kolkata, 21 December (H.S.)

There was a fear that Pakistan would take advantage of the anti-India atmosphere prevailing in Bangladesh to incite terrorism. Recently, there were reports of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI being active in Dhaka. After that, Indian intelligence agencies had increased their vigilance, due to which a major conspiracy of Bangladesh's terrorist organization Ansar-al-Islam has failed. Ansar-al-Islam had hatched a conspiracy to capture India's 'Chicken Neck', and separate seven states of North-East from the rest of the country. However, 8 henchmen of the terrorist organization have already been caught in West Bengal, Assam and Kerala on the alert of intelligence agencies. Now full details of the anti-India conspiracies going on in Bangladesh are being taken through interrogation of these terrorists.

Notably, there is a strip of just 28 kilometers wide in the Siliguri area of West Bengal, which is called Chicken Neck. This strip connects the rest of India's states with Assam, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh of the Northeast, i.e. in a way, this strip is the lifeline of the states of the Northeast. The strategic importance of this strip can be understood from the fact that India's borders with China, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan meet here.

The terrorists of Ansar-al-Islam had conspired to capture the Chicken Neck and cut off the North East states from the rest of India. For this, they wanted to spread instability by carrying out a series of attacks in the Chicken Neck corridor. Their plan was to create an atmosphere of chaos in the entire corridor, so that people get agitated and riots start. For this, a sleeper cell of the terrorist organization was activated in West Bengal in August, which was constantly making plans from within and inciting people.

8 terrorists of Ansar-al-Islam have been arrested in Kerala, Assam and Murshidabad district of West Bengal. According to West Bengal Police ADG Supratim Sarkar, the entire plan has been revealed from the 16 GB pen drive and jihadi documents found with the two terrorists arrested in Murshidabad. These terrorists named Abbas Ali and Minarul Sheikh had a plan to spread instability and start riots in sensitive areas of South and North Bengal as well as seven states of North East. For this, they had set up hideouts in Murshidabad and Alipurduar districts. Their plan was to kill prominent Hindu leaders in North-East and West Bengal so that Hindu-Muslim riots could erupt in the area. For this, attacks like the murder of a blogger in Bangladesh in 2015 were to be carried out. Suicide attacks were also included in their plan. The government said that interrogation with the terrorists is still going on, from which more information is expected to be obtained.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey