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Agenda
Menace of Bangladeshi infiltrators?II
Socio-economic impact of influx
By R.K. Ohri, IPS (Retd.)
Bangladesh has become the major operational ground for waging proxy war against India. Pakistan?s ISI and Al Qaeda have a grand design to set up a caliphate from Indonesia to Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, via India and through Pakistan right into the Balkans. In this global Islamic design India is the only obstacle, populated by non-Muslims.
During last three decades there has been a quantum jump in economic distress caused by growing unemployment all over the northeast, especially in Assam. As mentioned by the Chief Minister of Assam in August 2004, there were more than two million unemployed youth in Assam alone, an abnormally high figure by national standards. It could be an underestimate because the State?s economic survey for 2003-2004 revealed that employment exchanges had 15,71,996 job-seekers. As a rule, the employment exchange figures are underestimated to the extent of 30 to 40 per cent because the rural unemployed don?t come to register themselves in Employment Exchanges. Obviously the state has more than 20 to 25 lakh unemployed youth. Anyone can guess, what could be the jobs and livelihood resources usurped by Bangladeshis? Census 2001 had placed the population of Assam at 2,66,55,528. As per census 1991, the proportion of Assemese-speaking people in Assam was less than 40 per cent indicating that they have already become a minority in their ancestral homestead. That should give us an idea of the size of Bangla influx which could be 70 to 80 lakh. It means that at least 30 to 35 lakh jobs and livelihood resources have been usurped by Bangladeshis in Assam alone. Among the poorest sections of society both in India and Bangladesh, at least two members of the family (often both father and mother) work to keep the kitchen fires burning. Thus Nandy is not far wrong in saying that by pushing 15 per cent of its population into India, Bangladesh has imposed a heavy economic burden on Indian citizens. And this burden is borne by the poorest of the poor living on the margin of starvation because they are the first victim of loss of livelihood sources and petty jobs.
The diehard Doubting Thomases and armchair philosophers of New Delhi, unwilling to accept the truth, will do well to undertake a tour of the border districts of Assam and Bangladesh and interact with the original residents of the border villages, now outmigrating due to fear. They will come back to Delhi infinitely wiser and sober. Here I would like to narrate my interface with a retired paramilitary officer belonging to the northeast, barely 5-6 months ago. After an informal interactive session on the escalating violence in the region, I was asked by the retired officer whether the central government and mainstream leadership of India would have dared to remain silent spectators if a similar massive influx of Pakistani immigrants had taken place in north India, through the Punjab and Rajasthan borders? His question foxed me completely. There is a widespread feeling in the northeastern region that the government has thrown them to the wolves.
Grave Security Implications for Indian Nation
The dirty role of the ruling political dispensation of Bangladesh, acting in cahoots with the ISI of Pakistan for undermining the security and sovereignty of Indian nation is well known. Pakistan?s role in promoting jehad against India, through trained terrorists, can be ignored only at great peril to the security of Indian citizens. The possibility of carrying out jehad against India through the Indo-Pakistan frontier in north-west has been substantially reduced during the last 6-7 years due to the following reasons:
Extensive fencing along the Indo-Pakistan border and the line of control has significantly reduced the scope for large-scale infiltration, accepting the State of Jammu & Kashmir, and attempts at waging proxy war against India. After 9/11 the extensive presence of U S intelligence sleuths in Pakistan has made it difficult for the ISI to openly carry out anti-India campaigns through Punjab and / or Rajasthan border. After the Kargil war, India has increased the level of vigil across the Indo-Pakistan border, especially in J&K State.
Infiltration into India or mounting Jihadi campaigns for undermining India?s security.
In the circumstances, Pakistan has finetuned its old strategy of waging the ?war of a thousand cuts? against India by shifting ISI?s focus on infiltration of thousands of Jihadi warriors and spies through the porous Indo-Bangladesh border. No wonder in recent years, present Bangladesh has become the major operational ground for waging proxy war against India. Pakistan?s ISI and Al Qaeda have a grand design to set up a caliphate from Indonesia to Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, via India and through Pakistan right into the Balkans. In this global Islamic design, India is the only obstacle, populated by non-Muslims, against the Islamic dream of a trans-Asian caliphate. In this gigantic endeavour a number of Jihadi organisations like HUJI-B (i.e., Harkat-ul-Jihad-e Islami Bangladesh), Jamat-e-Islami, Okiya Jote, duly aided by Assam-based terrorist outfits like Muslim Liberation Tigers of Assam, Islamic Liberation Army of Assam, Muslim Security Force, Al Jihad-e Islami and Adam Sena, have joined hands to make an attempt at tearing away Assam and some other parts of the north-east from the Indian Republic. In fact, HUJI-B was clearly involved in the 2002 terror attack on American Center in Kolkata. In recent years, names of Jihadi operators belonging to HUJI-B are believed to have been involved in the attack on Sankat Mochan temple, Varanasi, in 2006, Mumbai bomb blasts, twin blasts in Hyderabad last year and the latest bomb blasts in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Recently, in the first week of March 2008, the U.S. government declared HUJI-B a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO).
An important instance of the perfidy of Bangladesh-based jihadis attacking Indian civilization was the dastardly attack on the make-shift Ramjanmabhoomi temple on July 5, 2005, which was planned in Bangladesh. One of the masterminds was Maqbool Hussain, a Dhubri-born Jaish-e-Mohammad jihadi terrorist and a close confidante of the notorious Maulana Azhar Masood, chief of JeM. Maqbool was arrested on October 29, 2005, by Delhi Police along with his associate Adnan, a Pakistani national and seasoned jihadi warrior. Originally from Assam, Maqbool had taken up residence in Dhaka and used to operate under different identities. The code name assigned to him by JeM was Zahid, while in Bangladesh he was known as Anwar. After traveling to Karachi on forged documents, Maqbool had even met Masood Azhar at Bahawalpur. He had studied at the great fount of jihadi terrorism for 5 years, Deoband in India from 1992 to 1997. Similarly, one of the masterminds of Sankat Mochan bomb blasts at Varanasi in March 2006, the Pesh Imam of a mosque in Allahabad (UP), too, had studied at Dar ul-Uloom, Deoband and had allegedly a Bangladeshi connection.
Tackling the Growing Menace of Infiltration
To be candid, till date, neither the Central Government, nor the State Government has ever tried to tackle the problem in a serious manner. The problem is not totally intractable, provided we do some out of box thinking. The following steps can substantially alter the scenario.
Apart from making a concerted attempt across the country to identify and deport all Bangladeshi infiltrators, a crash programme of resettling ex-servicemen and retired personnel of para military personnel all along Indo-Bangladesh border should be undertaken. A well-planned string of ?Sentinel Settlements? of ex-servicemen should be set up along the Indo-Bangladesh border. As far as possible, the settlers should be from the north-eastern region itself. But they must be financially supported by the government to buy farmland and licensed arms for defending their farms / orchards and the adjoining border areas. For better management and prompt results, cooperatives of ?sentinel settlements? should be patterned on the Israeli concept of ?armed kibbutz?. The settlers must be fully armed and well-equipped to take on the Jihadi infiltrators. In due course of time, such ?sentinel settlements? should be set up along all our borders, including Indo-Pak border in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab - even all along the Himachal Pradesh border adjacent to Doda-Kishtwar region of Jammu & Kashmir. Entire border with Bangladesh should be protected with a high-tech fortified security Barrier (not ordinary concertina fencing), dotted with multiple electronic sensors and machine-guns mounted watch towers as add-ons. For the proposed security barrier, expert advice of Israeli engineers should be sought. They have constructed a virtually impregnable barrier-cum-fence to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from entering Israel. It is time that the Government of India enacted and enforced a stringent law prohibiting employment of any ?illegal foreigner?, as has been done by the Government of United Kingdom. Like United Kingdom, a law should be enacted for imposing on-the-spot fine of Rs. 50,000 thousand on all those who give employment to any foreigner. Under the British law, titled The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act, passed in 2006, an employer giving a job to any illegal immigrant is liable to be fined 2000 pounds (equivalent of Rs. 1,60,000 Indian currency) on the spot, every time an illegal immigrant is employed. Also, finger printing of all suspected illegal immigrants should be made compulsory. If governments of U.K. and several other countries can enact such laws, why cannot India do that? In the Indian law a provision should also be incorporated for punishing all illegal immigrants taking up a job or occupation in India, without obtaining a prior permission from the Central Government. That would make it more stringent and deter all attempts at infiltration. The long-pending task of registration of all Indian nationals should be completed at an early date. It should be done first and foremost in Assam, West Bengal and all north-eastern States. Every Indian citizen should be issued a Photo-ID card and there should be full documentation of all foreigners, legal as well as illegal. This high priority task should be implemented without delay. Another important measure to counter the menace will be to motivate the people to boycott Bangladeshi hawkers, vendors and Rickshaw-pullers, as was done by a vigilant yout group of Dibrugarh, known as Chiring Chapori Yuva Manch, in May 2005 which made thousands of infiltrators flee from that district. In fact, public opinion needs to be mobilised across the country to boycott all Bangladeshi infiltrators by denying them jobs, residential accommodation and refusing to have any dealings with them.
(The writer is a former Inspector General of Police who has served in the Northeast.)
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