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North East: Assam on alert over Al-Qaeda threat

	December 24, 2007

Security agencies were put on high alert in Assam following intelligence inputs that Pakistan’s ISI along with Al-Qaida are purportedly planning

a major strike at the famous Kamakhya temple and other religious places.



Intelligence sources told reporters in Guwahati on Sunday, Dec. 23, that ISI along with Al-Qaida are planning to hit religious places in the state, including the world famous Kamakhya temple, atop the Neelachal hills in the city.



The ISI had planned these attacks after the bombing inside a mosque in Pakistan on December 21, the sources said.



There is a general high alert in the state under the direction of the Union Home Ministry following the mosque blast in Pakistan.



“Not only the Kamakhya temple but also other religious places as well as major public sector units have been targeted and thus security has been enhanced,” the sources said. Following the alert, security has been tightened inside the Kamakhya temple premises to thwart any attempt by the ultras to plant a bomb, they said.



Unlike other religious places in the country, the

temple does not have a security set up, or even a



compound wall or fencing making it an easy target

for the terrorists.



Threat to blow up BJP, AASU offices



Pakistan’s ISI and Al-Qaeda have threatened to

blow up the offices of the BJP’s Assam unit and All

Assam Students Union in Guwahati and also to kill

AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya. A letter

addressed to the BJP state unit’s president, Ramen

Deka, by eight persons claiming to be ISI and al-Qaeda

active members in Assam threatened “to blow out the

main BJP and AASU offices like the World Trade

Centre (in USA)”.



“Your offer to (Bangladeshi writer) Taslima

Nasreen to stay in Assam is against Islam and its tenets.

If you don’t stop your activities immediately a

powerful bomb will be exploded in your main office,”

cautioned the letter made available to the media in

Guwahti on Dec. 21.



The hand-written letter, in immigrant

Bangladeshi style Assamese dated December 11 on

plain paper and received by post, alleged that the BJP

under Deka’s leadership was “resorting to mental and

physical torture of local Muslims.



“Samujjal Bhattacharya’s death is also certain for

his activities as AASU advisor”, the letter threatened.



Deka said that an FIR had been lodged at the

Dispur police station and the highest police authority

informed.



AASU’s Bhattacharya said, “It is the duty of the

state government to find out the source of the letter

and take appropriate steps.”



ULFA links with ISI



In a startling revelation, a top IAF commander

said on Dec. 16 that a faction of the Ulfa is being

supported by Pakistan’s ISI after the split of the banned

outfit.



“One faction, operating in lower Assam, is in

league with Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence and

other fundamentalist forces, while the other, operating

in Upper Assam has build up a nexus with NSCN (K),”

outgoing AOC-in-C of Eastern Air Command, Air

Marshal P.K. Barbora said.



The faction operating in lower Assam has camps

in Bangladesh, he said, adding that this faction

supported influx of Bangladeshis into Assam. The

other faction, active in Upper Assam, is, however, not

in favour of such influx.



Air Marshal Barbora’s comments raising fresh

fears came on the heels of the arrest of a suspected key

activist of the ISI looking after its operational matters

in the Northeast in the guise of running a coal and

garment business. The activist was arrested from

Hedayatpur area in Guwahati on Friday.



The 35-year-old S.M. Alam alias Mujbullah alias

Asif was a Jamiat-e-Islami activist in Bangladesh and

in 1993 joined the Harkatul Mujhadeen. He was trained

in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, sources said. He is the

third suspected ISI man to be nabbed in Guwahati.

Two others were caught earlier this year with one

working as a rickshawpuller.