New Delhi, February 20 – Intelligence agencies are closely monitoring activities in Satkhira and Chuadanga in Bangladesh, as a fresh attempt is being made to smuggle in illegal immigrants ahead of the West Bengal elections.
Satkhira and Chuadanga, in southwestern Bangladesh, are bordered by India's North 24 Paraganas district and Nadia district, respectively.
The ISI has been encouraging the Jamaat-e-Islami to make fresh attempts to smuggle a large number of illegal immigrants into West Bengal. Interestingly, the effort is not being made to smuggle in terrorists along with these illegal immigrants. The ISI wants such a large-scale immigration to force massive demographic changes in West Bengal, an official of the Intelligence Bureau said.
What has further worried Indian agencies is that in the recently held Bangladesh national elections, the Jamaat-e-Islami won both the Satkhira and Chuadanga seats. The ISI will use its leverage over the Jamaat and, therefore, would look to smuggle in large numbers of illegal immigrants.
Officials say that several groups are working alongside the ISI to carry out this large operation. Besides the Jamaat, the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) are also in cahoots with the ISI to implement this sinister plan.
Several Rohingya refugees in Cox Bazaar have already been identified. They will be taken to the border areas of Bangladesh, and then the infiltration attempt will be made.
Agency officials say that the operation will not be carried out at once. The numbers will be small, but the number of operations will be large. The Rohingya refugees will be sent in batches of 50 to 100.
In the run-up to the West Bengal elections, over 100 such operations will be carried out.
The illegal immigrants have been instructed not to mingle too much with the locals in West Bengal. They will be sent to areas in West Bengal that have a Hindu majority. The idea is to outnumber the majority population in an attempt to bring about a large-scale demographic change, officials say.
In preparation for this operation, the many Madrasas that are operational in the border areas have been instructed to prepare themselves. These Madrasas will be used to house these people. Those working at these Madrasas have been told to coordinate with the local agents to ensure that the illegal immigration takes place without any problems.
Officials say that effecting a demographic change is extremely dangerous. It creates fissures within society, and the majority community is bound to get upset that they are being outnumbered. To understand what demographic change does, one must visit the Murshidabad case from six years back.
Clearly, the majority are outnumbered by the illegal immigrants. Since their arrival in India several years ago, many have engaged in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, cattle smuggling, and counterfeiting. They have outnumber the locals and then engaged in land grabbing. With the money they made through these criminal activities, they even purchased land at cheaper rates. With money and power, they decided that it was time to declare Murshidabad independent of India. However, an operation by the intelligence agencies busted this plot.
The agencies say that in addition to these large-scale illegal immigrants, security agencies must also closely monitor the activities of terrorist groups such as the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
There have been concrete inputs that these terrorist groups would target West Bengal as well as the northeastern states ahead or during the elections.
