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North East insurgency : US confirms Pak, Bangla involvement |
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Reports from New York say that Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (IS) is working with Bangladesh’s intelligence agencies to facilitate cooperation between India’ north-east militant groups like the Ulfa and other jihadi outfits in the South Asian region besides Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka.
Revealing this, US intelligence service Stratfor, in its latest forecast on April 23 titled, “India: The Islamization of the Northeast”, said that there is a growing Islamization in the region, spurred by ISI and instability in neighbouring Bangladesh which is giving foreign powers (China and Pakistan) a gamut of exploitable secessionist movements to use to prevent India from emerging as a major global player.
Stratfor says that there exists a strong nexus between the ISI and Bangladesh’s intelligence agencies.
According to the Stratfor, there are growing indications that these two agencies are working clandestinely in Bangladesh to bring all the northeast-based insurgent outfits and jihadist elements under one umbrella.
“The ISI has facilitated cooperation between Ulfa and other northeastern militant outfits with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, Islamist militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir, Islamist groups in Bangladesh and a growing number of al Qaeda-linked jihadist groups operating in the region,” it adds.
“Ulfa’s growing links with Bangladeshi Islamists and jihadist elements in the area are increasingly coming to light,” the report claims.
The April 9 attack timed with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit to Assam marked the group’s first-ever suicide bombing, a tactic that was pioneered by the Tigers and has been frequently employed by Islamist militants.
Ulfa’s adoption of suicide bombing, Stratfor says, looks to be the result of the group’s increased Islamisation caused by collusion with Islamist outfits in the region.
The bomber in the April 9 suicide attack was Ainul Ali, a Muslim.
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