The Hindu Rate of Wrath Francois Gautier Outlook

Is there such a thing as ‘Hindu terrorism’, as the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for the recent Malegaon blasts may tend to prove? Well, I guess I was asked to write this column because I am one of that rare breed of foreign correspondents—a lover of Hindus! A born Frenchman, Catholic-educated and non-Hindu, I do hope I’ll be given some credit for my opinions, which are not the product of my parents’ ideas, my education or my atavism, but garnered from 25 years of reporting in South Asia (for Le Journal de Geneve and Le Figaro)

In the early 1980s, when I started freelancing in south India, doing photo features on kalaripayattu, the Ayyappa festival, or the Ayyanars, I slowly realised that the genius of this country lies in its Hindu ethos, in the true spirituality behind Hinduism. The average Hindu you meet in a million villages possesses this simple, innate spirituality and accepts your diversity, whether you are Christian or Muslim, Jain or Arab, French or Chinese.

also learnt that Hindus not only believed that the divine could manifest itself at different times, under different names, using different scriptures (not to mention the wonderful avatar concept, the perfect answer to 21st century religious strife) but that they had also given refuge to persecuted minorities from across the world - Syrian Christians, Parsis, Jews, Armenians, and today, Tibetans. In 3,500 years of existence, Hindus have never militarily invaded another country, never tried to impose their religion on others by force or induced conversions. You cannot find anybody less fundamentalist than a Hindu in the world and it saddens me when I see the Indian and western press equating terrorist groups like SIMI, which blow up innocent civilians, with ordinary, angry Hindus who burn churches without killing anybody. We know also that most of these communal incidents often involve persons from the same groups—often Dalits and tribals—some of who have converted to Christianity and others not. However reprehensible the destruction of Babri Masjid, no Muslim was killed in the process; compare this to the ‘vengeance’ bombings of 1993 in Bombay, which wiped out hundreds of innocents, mostly Hindus. Yet the Babri Masjid destruction is often described by journalists as the more horrible act of the two. We also remember how Sharad Pawar, when he was chief minister of Maharashtra in 1993, lied about a bomb that was supposed to have gone off in a Muslim locality of Bombay. I have never been politically correct, but have always written what I have discovered while reporting. Let me then be straightforward about this so-called Hindu terror. Hindus, since the first Arab invasions, have been at the receiving end of terrorism, whether it was by Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single day in 1399, or by the Portuguese Inquisition which crucified Brahmins in Goa. Today, Hindus are still being targeted: there were one million Hindus in the Kashmir valley in 1900; only a few hundred remain, the rest having fled in terror. Blasts after blasts have killed hundreds of innocent Hindus all over India in the last four years. Hindus, the overwhelming majority community of this country, are being made fun of, are despised, are deprived of the most basic facilities for one of their most sacred pilgrimages in Amarnath while their government heavily sponsors the Haj. They see their brothers and sisters converted to Christianity through inducements and financial traps, see a harmless 84-year-old swami and a sadhvi brutally murdered. Their gods are blasphemed. So sometimes, enough is enough.At some point, after years or even centuries of submitting like sheep to slaughter, Hindus—whom the Mahatma once gently called cowards—erupt in uncontrolled fury. And it hurts badly. It happened in Gujarat. It happened in Jammu, then in Kandhamal, Mangalore, and Malegaon. It may happen again elsewhere. What should be understood is that this is a spontaneous revolution on the ground, by ordinary Hindus, without any planning from the political leadership. Therefore, the BJP, instead of acting embarrassed, should not disown those who choose other means to let their anguished voices be heard. There are about a billion Hindus, one in every six persons on this planet. They form one of the most successful, law-abiding and integrated communities in the world today. Can you call them terrorists? (The writer is the editor-in-chief of the Paris-based La Revue de l’Inde.) RELATED STORIES; Disadvantaged Majority @ http://indiasecular.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/disadvantaged-hindus-pampered-minorities Pushing Hindus @ http://indiaview.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/pushing-hindus-in-corner What made Hindus angry @ http://worldmonitor.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/what-made-hindus-angry http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?

BLEEDING ASSAM CRIES OUT FOR ATTENTION -INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR

By B. Raman Available police statistics of incidents involving explosions and civilian casualties caused by the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) since 2002 are given below: Read as YEAR NUMBER OF EXPLOSIONS CIVILIANS KILLED 2002 18 218 , 2003 19 260 ,2004 103 202 ,2005 121 65 ,2006 86 59 ,2007 70 124 ,2008 6 0. The figures of civilians killed in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 include civilians killed by explosions as well as in attacks not involving IEDs.The figures for 2006 and 2007 refer to only civilians killed by IEDs. While there was a large number of incidents involving IEDs, the number of civilians killed per incident was low as compared to incidents involving IEDs caused by jihadi terrorists in other parts of India. This could be attributed to the fact that the explosive material used by the ULFA----much of it procured from Bangladesh--- was of low quality as compared to the material available to the jihadi terrorists --- whether procured from Pakistan or Bangladesh--- and the expertise in the use of IEDs imparted to the ULFA in the training camps in Bangladesh was also of inferior quality as compared to the expertise imparted to the jihadi terrorists---whether in Pakistan or Bangladesh. A defining characteristic of the incidents involving the use of IEDs targeting civilians in Assam was that many of the incidents specifically targeted non-Assamese civilians while taking care not to target Assamese-speaking civilians and illegal Bangladeshi migrants. Jihadi terrorists in other parts of India make no distinction. They kill civilians indiscriminately---- without worrying about their religion, ethnic or linguistic origin. Jihadi terrorism, as distinguished from the ethnic terrorism of the ULFA kind, has also started making inroads in Assam. According to the Assam Police, the following jihadi organisations are now active in Assam: The Muslim Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA); the Independent Liberation Army of Assam (ILAA); the People United Liberation Front (PULF); the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), whose Pakistani counterpart is a founding member of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF); and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), whose Pakistani counterpart is also a member of the IIF. According to them, the activities of all these organisations are co-ordinated by the Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen (JUM) of Bangladesh, which organised hundreds of simultaneous explosions of crude devices all over Bangladesh on August 17, 2005. Some HUM cadres, along with two Pakistani nationals, were arrested in August, 1999. Forty-two HUM cadres, including some trained in the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK), surrendered till 2006-end. Four HUJI cadres trained in Bangladesh surrendered in August, 2004. One HUJI cadre was arrested in February, 2004. Till 2006-end, 370 jihadi terrorists belonging to different organisations had been arrested and 128 had surrendered. The Security Forces in Assam have been putting up a determined fight against the ULFA killing 1,128 cadres since 1991 and till 2006-end and arresting 11,173 during the same period. 8,465 others surrendered. The result: decrease in cadre strength; erosion of its support base in the population; decrease in recruitment and fund collection; and shortage of arms and ammunition. In view of these developments, the ULFA started following a new modus operandi with the following features: decrease in specific targeted violence; increase in indiscriminate violence directed at soft targets; targeting of vital installations in remote areas; attacks on security forces when and where possible; and use of unconscious third persons not suspected by the Police for having the IEDs planted in public places. The use of such unconscious third persons has been increasing. However, the ULFA still has an estimated hardcore of 800 trained cadres and another 1,500 untrained cadres. There are no signs of any weakening of its morale and motivation. Its command and control orchestrated from Bangladesh is intact. Any effective counter-terrorism strategy in Assam has to have the conventional components such as improving intelligence collection, analysis and assessment and co-ordinated follow-up action; improving the capability and resources of the police; strengthened physical security; and a well-tested crisis management drill. In addition, it must have a strong anti-illegal immigration component---to prevent any further illegal immigration from Bangladesh and the identification, arrests and deportation of those, who have already illegally entered India. Obviously for electoral reasons, there is a reluctance on the part of the Government to deal effectively with illegal immigration. This is likely to prove suicidal. Muslims constitute about 32 per cent of the population of Assam today. If the problem of illegal immigration from Bangladesh is not tackled, there is a real danger that in another 50 years, Assam might turn into a Muslim majority State. Pakistan, Bangladesh and China have an interest in keeping Assam destabilised---each for its own reason. The interest of Pakistan and Bangladesh is in facilitating the emergence of a Muslim majority State and its ultimate secession from India. The interest of China is in weakening the Indian capability to protect Arunachal Pradesh in the likelihood of the unresolved border dispute over Arunachal Pradesh one day leading to a confrontation between India and China. The previous Government headed by Shri A. B. Vajpayee was strong in rhetoric relating to terrorism, but weak in action. Its successor Govt. is weak in rhetoric as well as action. It seems to believe that confidence-building measures with neighbours who are sponsoring terrorism against India and the peace process would pay dividends in improving the terrorism situation on the ground. This is unlikely to happen. Lack of determination to act strongly and in time is already costing us heavily and will cost even more heavily in future. ---Extract from the Chapter titled ASSAM: TERRORISM & “SILENT UNARMED INVASION” in my book titled "Terrorism: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow" published by the Lancer Publishers (www.lancerpublishers.com) of Delhi in June, 2008 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More than 50 persons are feared to have died and more than a hundred injured in over 10 blasts that were simultaneously orchestrated in Guwahati, the capital of Assam, and in the Districts of Barpeta and Kokrajhar on October 30, 2008. The picture regarding the exact number of explosions and the places where they took place is still confusing. Some reports put the number of explosions as high as 18. At least four of the blasts took place in Guwahati. 2. The people of Assam are not strangers to serial blasts carried out from time to time by the ULFA and jihadi organisations of Pakistani and Bangladeshi vintage, which have made inroads into the State by taking advantage of the uncontrolled illegal immigration of Muslims into the State from Bangladesh They have been operating separately of each other when possible and in co-ordination with each other, when necessary. 3. Assam has been the nerve-centre of a cocktail of terrorist organisations----ethnic and jihadi--- who have been systematically eating at the vitals of this State, which is key for protecting the integrity of India from the designs of Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. But nobody has had the time to pay attention to the alarming ground situation in this key State----neither the Congress (I) nor the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor any other party. Taking advantage of the lack of serious attention from the Government of India and the mainstream political parties, this cocktail of terrorists has been spreading havoc in the State. 4. "My heart goes out to the people of Assam," said Jawaharlal Nehru in a broadcast to the people of Assam as the Chinese troops were marching in in 1962. He did nothing to protect them before the Chinese invaded. His Government and its successors did precious little to protect this right arm of India and its people either from the Chinese in the event of another war or from the terrorist organisations of various hues which have come up in the State since the 1980s. Who is whose surrogate? Who is the surrogate of Pakistan? Who is the surrogate of Bangladesh? Who is the surrogate of China? Is there a joint co-ordination by Pakistan, Bangladesh and China to undermine the control of the Indian State? Nobody knows the answer. 5. Everyone is clueless---- the intelligence agencies, the police, the security forces, the political class. There is hardly any realisation of the seriousness of the situation in Assam. One can even understand inadequacies and even incompetence, but one is alarmed by the total disinterest in Delhi in what is going on in Assam. 6. It is too early to say who was involved in the explosions of October 30---- the ULFA only or ULFA plus? One has to wait for the results of the investigation, but from the large number of casualties and the widespread nature of the attacks, one thing is already clear----there has been a worrisome increase in the lethality of the explosives available to the terrorists and their ability to use them effectively. 7. Public opinion has to force the Governments at the Centre and in the State and the political class as a whole to act before it is too late.

A Part Of Operation Pin Code

Serial bomb blasts at Guwahati, Barpeta Road, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon last Thursday, the day following the Deepawali celebration, have sent shock waves across the country, apart from drawing wide condemnation by national leaders and even US President George Bush, who is well-known for his ‘‘war on terrorism’’. Nine high-intensity blasts in the four lower Asom districts, during peak working hours, at crowded market and office centres, within a span of about 20 to 25 minutes, have totally exposed the hollowness of the Asom government’s frequent claims of drastic improvement of the law-and-order situation as well as the security scenario of the State. Once again, the terrorists have outsmarted the State machineries, as done in Mumbai, Bangaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and elsewhere in the country, which clearly testify to the well-planned, well-coordinated, well-motivated, well-timed, well-funded and logistically well-supported execution of the targeted blasts, with precision. It is suspected that the high-intensity blasts were caused using RDX and TNT, with timer device barring the near-aborted grenade blast that took place at Bongaigaon, which was planted in an abandoned motor cycle, but exploded in the process of removing it for defusing. The Guwahati blasts were caused by bombs planted in two Maruti cars — one parked at the parking lot of CJM’s Court, just next to the high-security offices of DC, Kamrup (M) and Kamrup, and the other near Panbazar Police Station, by the roadside opposite a shop ‘‘Silkpoint’’. The Asom government not only failed to prevent the horrible blasts just 300 metres away from the State Secretariat, let apart the other places, but also miserably failed to man the post-blast law-and-order situation at Dispur, as the whole world could witness from the television footage of the local as well as the national electronic media. According to eyewitnesses, for more than two hours following the Ganeshguri blast, except a small contingent of CRPF personnel, the Asom Police personnel were nowhere to be seen, as a result of which the outraged mob resorted to hooliganism by burning fire brigade vehicles, one ambulance of a private hospital, a bus used by the CRPF personnel, grounded a traffic-control point, and damaged government hoardings. There was total anarchy prevailing at Ganeshguri, with the public attacking State properties in a spontaneous expression of anger at the State’s failure to provide security to the common man, which culminated in a section of the irate crowd carrying two dead bodies of blast victims to the gate of the State Secretariat. Not a single policeman, not to speak of anymagistrate, was to be seen anywhere aroundGaneshguri to control the mob fury and restore some semblance of law and order before curfew was clamped for about three hours or so, which was also lifted promptly at 5.30 pm. The absence of Asom Police personnel was because of detailment of about 700 of them to guard the VVIP route from Khanapara to LGNB Airport by which the Asom CM and a posse of his ministers travelled to the airport for giving a warm send-off to the Haj pilgrims destined for Jeddah in a direct flight from Guwahati. The authorities made a mockery of themselves by not making any effort whatsoever to maintain peace, and failing in that, to impose curfew. While it was difficult to know the mob psychology in overturning and then setting on fire the ambulance vehicle, it was informed by a section of the media that the fire brigade vehicles arrived at Ganeshguri after about 45 minutes of the blast and that too without carrying any water for dousing the engulfing fire. There was total chaos in removing the dead and the injured, as no support teams or vehicles were deployed by the authorities. But for the voluntary services rendered by the members of the public in rescuing the injured and putting them into public vehicles for taking to the nearest hospital, the number of casualties could have been far higher.There was no presence of any disaster management team anywhere at the blast sites, for which the government owes an answer to the people, as a lot of public money had been spent over the years on ‘‘disaster management training, planning and operation’’. Now coming to the crux of the terror strikes in the most synchronized and successful manner, the instant questions universally raised are: Who are the barbarous, psychopathic killers? Who are their supporters, sympathizers, linkmen, trainers, transporters, harbourers and financiers? What are their aims and objectives? What would be their next targets? How did they manage to escape the security dragnet in the four lower Asom districts in spite of the State having a strong unified command structure headed by the Chief Minister himself? While the Asom government would never admit its failure to secure the life and property of citizens against such terror strikes, the whole world is now convinced that it has totally failed in discharging its prime constitutional responsibility. Everyone believes that the unified command structure has been totally marginalized by the superior ‘‘merchants of terror’’ and the State intelligence machinery has been made totally irrelevant by their terrorist counterparts. The Asom Chief Minister revealed at a press conference on Thursday evening that the State government had information that some terror attacks could take place in the festive season, but did not know where this could happen and also could not imagine that the damages could be of such a high magnitude. He also said that the blasts could be the handiwork of the ULFA or any other militant outfit and that he had issued strict instructions to nab the culprits, whosoever they are. This position itself suggests how prepared the Asom government was to meet any terrorist challenge and pre-empt terror strikes! One Asom minister pinpointed his fingers at the outlawed ULFA while appearing before a local television channel, though later he said that ULFA would mean HuJI, ISI and others also. On the other hand, the Asom intelligence chief Khagen Sarmah told the media that jehadi forces were responsible for the serial blasts. Interestingly, a couple of weeks back, I listened to Khagen Sarmah speaking before a local television channel that his wing was devoting more time on jehadi activists as compared to the ULFA, as the danger posed by the former to the unity and integrity of the country was gaining momentum in recent days. How right Sarmah was, has now been proved, as the ULFA, unlike in the past, has immediately denied its involvement in the blasts in any manner whatsoever. This unequivocal denial by ULFA also comes in conflict with the statement by a local security analyst that the ULFA, which recently set up its base in Yunun province of China, could have perpetrated the serial blasts. Well, several security analysts and a major section of the people of Asom have ruled out this theory, though Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta reportedly talked about the involvement of Bangladesh-based HuJI and its network in Asom, with some possible support from the ULFA.Security analysts across the country, asheard from panel discussion held on national television channels on Thursday, have pointed their fingers at Islamic terrorist groups like HuJI, Jammat-e-Islami, MULTA etc, with support from ISI and DGFI of Bangladesh, who could be behind the serial blasts, with the objective to destabilize the unity and integrity of India, concentrating on the northeastern region in view of its highly volatile geo-political environment.In one of my columns in The Sentinel immediately after the serial blasts in Bangaluru and Ahmedabad, I had opined that the next major targets of jehadi terror strikes could be Kolkata and Guwahati. They failed in Kolkata due to very strict and effective security management and real-time intelligence by the Kolkata Police, insulated from the usual politicking which is done in Asom where the terrorists achieved tremendous success. Will the Asom Chief Minister and his political team learn the right lesson even at this late stage and allow the police and intelligence agencies to perform their assigned tasks professionally, without the least political interference? Finally, about the notorious ‘‘Operation Pin Code’’. India News Online (April, 2006) gives details of the Bangladesh-ISI-backed “Operation Pin Code” against India. Some extracts of the report are reproduced below. “With the Bush administration leaning heavily on Gen Musharraf to curb cross-border terrorism, the ISI has been shifting the base of terrorist operations against India to Bangladesh. This operation is called ‘Operation Pin Code’ and is focused on creating a coalition of different terrorist groups operating in Northeastern India and Bangladesh. This coalition is a mirror copy of Syed Salahuddin’s United Jihad Council. The Bangladesh chapter of the Jihad Council is led by HuJI and comprises Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Al Hikma, Jamaat-e-Tulba, Jamaat-ul-Muderrasin, Islamic Chhatra Shibir, Islamic Oikya Jote, Immam Arishad, Islamic Shahsantantra Andolon, Bangladesh Khilafat Majlis and Hizbul Tehrir and ULFA. There are intelligence reports that the ISI has tied up with the Bangladesh Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) to implement ‘Operation Pin Code’. The plan involves raising a cadre of 20,000 jihadis to achieve the objective of creating a Greater Islamic Homeland in India.”

Archives from News on North East

Bangladeshi Infiltration Reaches New Territories

By: Dr. Anand Kumar (The views expressed by the author are his own) After returning from the 28th India-Bangladesh Border Coordination Conference in Dhaka, the BSF chief A K Mitra disclosed that nearly 12 lakh Bangladeshis who had entered India on valid papers have disappeared between 1972 to 2005. He was quoting this figure from the intelligence reports of the West Bengal government. This is one of the few official figures about the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants whose number has been estimated to be around 20 million and growing by the day. Out of this number nearly 6 million illegal Bangladeshis are residing in Assam only, where they have turned five of the bordering districts into migrant majority areas. What is however, most concerning is that these illegal immigrants are now threatening to swamp tribal and rural areas of Assam and other parts of the country. This development has been taking place under the nose of the authorities some of whom could not act because of the earlier Illegal Migrants' Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act. But even after this Act became defunct due to the Supreme Court judgment the deportation of Bangladeshis has not been taking place at a desired pace prompting the Guwahati High Court to say in a recent judgment on July 23, 2008 that the Bangladeshi migrants have become the kingmakers. The landmark judgment of the high court also observed that a strong political will to free Assam from illegal Bangladeshis was the need of the hour. The judgment was passed while disposing the petitions of 61 petitioners after they were pronounced as foreigners by the respective Foreigners' Tribunals. One of these migrants, Md Kamaluddin was in possession of a Pakistani passport on which he had travelled to Bangladesh and subsequently reached Assam where he even filed a nomination during the 1996 Assembly polls. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi criticised the High Court judge’s comment. However, the immediate reaction of Gogoi was nothing but an attempt to push the issue under the carpet. Earlier in 2005 an outgoing judge of IMDT Tribunal had made similar remarks. The court remarks have prompted some political organizations like the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) to threaten another Assam Agitation to take the “oust-Bangladeshi mission.” Their activists along with the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chattra Parishad (AJYCP) rounded up hundreds of people, suspected to be Bangladeshis, from various parts of the state and later handed them over to the police. The growing sentiment against illegal immigration has led to social tension in Assam. This led to a clash in northern Assam’s Udalguri district during a 12-hour general strike enforced by a minority students’ group. In these clashes two people were killed and six others were injured. Unfortunately, any move against the illegal immigrants soon takes communal colour. The Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) led by Badruddin Ajmal in a statement said that it would not remain quiet if the religious sentiments of the minorities were hurt on the pretext of dealing with foreigners. The AUDF working president Hafiz Rashid Choudhury even suggested that the government of India should try and persuade Bangladesh government to sign extradition treaty. The Indian government has been pursuing this matter with the Bangladeshi government but its effort has not succeeded. First for the Bangladesh government, the issue of illegal migration does not exist. Second this treaty would also necessitate that Bangladesh hands over insurgent leaders staying in that country. For that the government is not ready. The problem of illegal migration in worsening by the day. The illegal migrants are now no longer limited to major cities and their suburbs. They are now entering into rural and tribal areas. In Assam the problem of illegal migration now threatens to swamp even the tribal areas. According to Stelin Ingti, president, Karbi Students’ Union about one lakh illegal immigrants are staying in the Karbi Anglong district. With the problem of infiltration of Bangladeshi immigrants now spreading to tribal belts of Assam, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has joined hands with two tribal students’ unions - the Karbi Students’ Union (KSU) and All Dimasa Students’ Union (ADSU) to fight the problem in an effective manner. The increasing pressure on migrants in upper Assam make some of them move to the five immigrant-dominated districts of Dhubri, Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Morigaon and Nagoan in Lower Assam. This time a large number of immigrants trickled into Meghalaya plains. According to the Garo Students Union (GSU), the plains areas, especially Phulbari, Rajabala, Mahendraganj and Tikrikilla areas of the Garo hills, are a cause for concern as the Bangladeshis have made their homes in these border areas. There are instances when illegal Bangladeshi settlers have married residents in the border areas to claim rights and privileges from Meghalaya. To avoid an Assam like situation, the Garo Students Union (GSU) has threatened to launch an eviction drive against illegal Bangladeshi migrants. Assam is now acting as a gateway through which illegal migrants are trickling in other states of northeast like Manipur, Nagaland and Meghalaya. Migrants move directly to Tripura because of contiguous porous border. Central government has taken some steps to check the migration. The most important step has been fencing of the border. This fencing work is now nearing completion. Though the fencing has not completely stopped the illegal movement of Bangladeshis it has definitely put check. In case of Tripura out of 860 km porous border that it shares with Bangladesh, over 700 km have been fenced and the remaining portion would be fenced soon. This has also improved law and order situation in the bordering areas where predators from Bangladesh used to attack villages on Indian side. India shares its longest border with Bangladesh. The India-Bangladesh border runs along 2,979 kilometers (1,851 miles) of land while 1,116 kilometers is riparian. Border patrolling poses real challenge in riverine area. It has also been found that the earlier scheme of floating border posts have proved to be a non-starter. Hence in its place the BSF has decided to use speed boats to patrol. The government has also decided to raise two India Reserve Battalions (IRBs) and deploy for riverine policing. The improved patrolling on the Indo-Bangladesh seems to have shown some result. The BSF chief recently stated that in 2007 only 807 illegal immigrants were arrested along the Indo-Bangla border in comparison to five years ago when thousands of such persons were apprehended by BSF. However, the difficulty in crossing the land border has not deterred Bangladeshis from coming to India. Many of them are now taking sea route. They are now reaching newer states like Orissa through boats. A large number of Orissa districts are now infested with these migrants. Lakhs of Bangladeshi infiltrators are staying in Kendrapara, Nawarangpur, Malkangiri, Bhubaneswar, Puri, Chilika, Ganjam, Balasore, Keonjhar and several other places. Bangladeshis are now moving into rural area of several states. In West Bengal illegal Bangladeshi migrants have trickled into parts of rural Bengal, including Nandigram, over the years, and settled down as sharecroppers with the help of local Left leaders. Several districts of Bihar are also similarly affected. Our border guards can play their role only on the border, which is already very difficult because of the porous nature of this border. Unless, they get help from the civil administration, no effective check on the problem of illegal immigration can be exercised. In fact, often the civil administration rather than helping the BSF is found helping the illegal migrants. In a number of cases, the papers of these migrants are ready even before they have entered Indian territory. There are touts operating on the border who are providing all kinds of services for sums as little as 700 Rupees. Even when the BSF manages to catch some of these illegal migrants they face legal hassles and hostile local population as most of these bordering districts in Assam as well as West Bengal has become Bangladeshi dominant. FIRs are lodged implicating BSF officers. Bangladeshis are often helped in the effort by the local politicians. The problem of of illegal immigration from Bangladesh has already become a threatening one. In the past, it affected the demography of several Indian states, but now it is posing serious internal security threat, as among these migrants a large number of them are Jihadi elements. They have been found to be involved in many of the recent bomb-blasts which took place in India. They also act as sleeper cells of terrorist groups like HUJI and LeT. Intelligence agencies like the ISI and the DGFI are also implementing their disruptive designs through them. It’s high time that a coordinated effort is made to check this menace.