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Terrorist attack on Kolkata American Center : Unanswered questions

	January 28, 2002

The early morning attack by a group of suspected terrorists on January 22 at the American Center building in Kolkata, that had left five policemen dead on the spot, led to a review of the strategy to combat terrorism. Jammu and Kashmir and North India have been generally under the scanner of intelligence agencies and security forces for possible militant attacks. But the shooting incident in the city of Kolkata raised many questions, especially the risk of Bangladesh being used for cross-border terrorism. Just like the December 13 last attack on Parliament that also left only the cops dead, the latest attack left only the security men as victims. What perplexed the intelligence agencies was why a mission was launched early in the morning when there were hardly any staff. If the target was Americans, there was no logic in shooting at the cops at 6.35 a.m. Theories about the nature of the assault team ranged from underworld revenge to ISI connections and Bangladesh links. Investigating authorities were puzzled why not a single shot was fired at the attackers and no effort was made to chase them. There were at least 32 men of the Calcutta Armed Police present at the spot.

The identity of the attackers was confusing as some callers reportedly from Dubai rang up the newspaper offices to claim responsibility for the “mission.” The role of a crime syndicate was also not ruled out. Following the kidnapping of a Kolkata businessman, many people had been rounded up by the police and one was even reportedly shot. There was speculation that the attack could be the handiwork of the gang as a revenge act. But it was not clear why the US complex was chosen if the target was only cops. The incident happened when the chief of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was in India who refused to call it immediately a terrorist attack. The reaction from the US too was the same. President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell while condemning the loss of lives, stopped short of calling it an act of terrorism. In the context of the current Indo-Pak tension, there was a clear attempt to play down the attack and not support the Indian charges of ISI links of the assailants.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did not rule out the role of the ISI but Islamabad was quick to deny that its intelligence service was involved in the attack. The main suspect was Aftab Ansari, an abduction specialist, who had been given a Pak passport by the ISI and was settled in Dubai. His name surfaced following the kidnapping of a Kolkata businessman, Partha Roy Burman, in July 2001 who was freed after an amount of Rs 40 million was paid, according to the police and the son of a prominent Gujarat jeweller who was let off after paying a ransom of Rs 30 million.

Aftab Ansari is suspected to be connected with the militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami, which is active in Bangladesh. The extortion money that his terror network got was apparently used for buying the latest arms.

In Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Home Ministry had different reactions to the Kolkata incident. The External Affairs Ministry was cautious in its comments and did not jump to the conclusion of linkage of the attack to Pak-based terrorism unlike the characterization of the Home Ministry. Home Minister Advani and his deputy I.D. Swami were in no doubt that it was the handiwork of the ISI. Swami, in fact, said despite its initial reservations, the US should accept the fact of ISI role in the Kolkata attack on the US Center. Diplomats in Delhi too were cautious and felt that the operation had more in common with that of the Mumbai underworld which uses contract killers and professional hit men.

A two-member FBI team that went to Kolkata for a separate investigation faced criticism from the West Bengal Government which felt it was competent to investigate the matter. The Chief Minister too was angry at the FBI team visit which he said amounted to “spying.” FBI Director Robert Mueller who had been to Delhi on a visit while reacting to the Kolkata incident called it only a “terrible tragedy” and said he had not got all the facts to term it a terrorist act or not. This was in line with President Bush’s stand who expressed concern at the attack and the killing of the cops but did not term it immediately an act of terror.

India has said that any inputs received from the FBI and other American agencies would be factored into the investigations into the attack. An External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said the primary responsibility and its execution would be that of the Government of India and the West Bengal government.The spokesperson pointed out that the US and Indian governments were cooperating on counter-terrorism issues for which the two sides have established a joint working group.



Claims by two outfits

Intelligence agencies believe that there is nothing contradictory in both the Harkat-ul-jehadi-e-Islami (HUJI) and the Asif Raza Commando Force claiming responsibility for the attack on the American center. They also believe that the Force was an adjunct of the HUJI, formed recently and staffed with locals and some experienced HUJI cadres that were trained at ISI- backed training camps in Pakistan.

According to intelligence sources, the Force was probably formed in the third week of December at a village populated by illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Malda District.

The two outfits have close links with the ISI. They are two sides of the same coin and both made the claims to publicise the fact that they are fraternal organizations. That‘ s the way terrorist organizations operate .Had the Asif Raza Commando Force been the only one to claim responsibility, the claim would have been dismissed. HUJI is a known name. And this has accorded the force a lot of publicity.

There was a meeting of middle-ranking HUJI leaders at this village which is about 15 km from Habibpur town .Sometime in the third week of December, plans were chalked out to float an affiliate of the outfit for local operations. It is believed that the HUJI leaders sneaked into Malda through Bangladesh. They are learnt to have met some fundamental activists of the banned outfit Student’s Islamic Movement Of India and discussed forming an affiliate of the HUJI, it was stated.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Advani has disclosed that Interpol had issued a red corner warrant against Dubai-based underworld don Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Malik, who has been accused of masterminding the attack on the American Center. About his extradition from Dubai, he said the Home Ministry along with the Ministry of External Affairs and other agencies has been pursuing the matter with the UAE authorities. India and the UAE have an extradition treaty. The CBI, which is the representative of France-based Interpol in India, issued the red corner notice against Ansari following a request from the West Bengal Police in the kidnapping of Kolkata shoe baron Parthapratim Roy Burman.



West Bengal’s vulnerability

The attack on the police picket outside the American Center has underlined the vulnerability of the State of West Bengal. Its long and porous border with Bangladesh has helped the ISI to build up a substantial presence in several areas of Kolkata and almost all districts of the State bordering Bangladesh-with the Siliguri sub-division of Darjeeling district in the north receiving particular attention. All this was dramatically brought to light in January, 1999, when Delhi Police arrested Syed Abu Nasir, a Bangladeshi who had crossed over from Bangladesh to bomb the US Embassy in Delhi and the US Consulate General in Chennai. He revealed during interrogation that he and his team of nine had gathered in Kolkata in December, 1998. From there, the three Indian members had been sent to Siliguri to establish a support base in collaboration with ISI agents stationed there, while the six “Afghans” - a generic term used to signify Afghans as well as various Arab and other terrorists trained in Afghanistan by the Al Qaeda-went to Chennai. The three Indians who went to Siliguri were subsequently arrested while the six “Afghans” managed to disappear.

The ISI’s activities in the area attracted further attention during the Kargil War when a blast in a train at North Jalpaiguri station on June 24, 1999, directed at a group of jawans travelling to north-western India in connection with the operations, killed two of them and injured 16. Besides, there were several attempts to sabotage the movement of troops and equipment from north-eastern to north-western India. These clearly underlined the reason for the ISI’s activities in Siliguri. North-eastern India’s sole direct land link with the rest of the country passes through the sub-division, particularly the narrow Siliguri-Islampur corridor. The ISI, in collaboration with sections of Bangladesh’s intelligence outfits and fundamentalist Islamic organisations, has been training and supporting north-east Indian insurgent outfits like the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), both Khaplang and the Isaac Swu-Thuingaleng Muivah groups of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), Bodo rebels in Assam and tribal insurgents in Tripura for years. Its plans include the separation of the whole of north-eastern India from the rest of the country and the creation of an autonomous Islamic State in the north-east comprising parts of Assam, Nagaland and Myanmar. Should it ever come close to success in implementing its plans, trouble in the Siliguri-Islampur corridor, hampering movement of troops and supplies to the north-eastern States, would be of critical advantage to it.

All this should be borne in mind while considering the incident on January 22. While the fact that a Dubai-based don, Aftab Ansari, has claimed that it was staged to avenge the death of his friend Asif Reza Khan, a suspect in the Khadim abduction case, in an encounter with the police in Gujarat, cannot be ignored, it has to be received with scepticism. The ride-by shooting they indulged in has been frequently resorted to by the Sunni Sipaha-e-Sahaba Pakistan and the Shiite Tehrik-e-Jaffria (both now banned) in the sectarian killings that have plagued Pakistan. Secondly, Ansari reportedly has links with the Jaish-e-Mohammad and a part of the ransom money received in the Khadim abduction case was reportedly wired to Mohammad Atta, one of the leading terrorists involved in the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11 last year, and used to fund the crime. He may well have made the claim at the behest of Pakistan which, under tremendous pressure from the US, may decide to halt, at least temporarily, its cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in northern and western India, and concentrate on West Bengal and north-eastern States with the cooperation of the Khaleda Zia government in Bangladesh. That would make it easier for it to plead that it did not have any common border with these parts of India and hence could not possibly be involved.

From this perspective, the attack might have been meant to serve three objectives-to test the ability of Kolkata and West Bengal Police to cope with such incidents; to see the reaction of the State’s Left Front Government; and to see whether the incident could be successfully passed off as an act of vengeance by a criminal group. The third objective would clearly be the most important. If Pakistan succeeds in doing it, then it would become that much easier to project subsequent terrorist acts also as offshoots of criminal activity and no more. And West Bengal, which lived through a nightmare from 1967 to 1972, will have another one ahead.



Crackdown on SIMI, Madrassas

The West Bengal Government has started cracking down on the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and madrassas and mosques that encourage subversive activities. A series of arrests and detentions of SIMI activists as well as persons having links with Islamic radical and terror groups all over the State were carried out. The police arrested or detained scores of people from Howrah, North 24 Parganas, Murshidabad and Malda districts. Known activists of the SIMI were put under the scanner here and a few of them have been picked up for questioning.

The police are scanning more than 10,000 calls made from cellular phones in Kolkata between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. on January 22.The police are also working on possible escape routes and the means of getaway used by the assailants after the shooting. The police have also identified a few madrassas and mosques that allegedly harbour anti-nationals.

Meanwhile, the police interrogated the mother and sister of Dubai-based Aftab Ansari, who claimed responsibility for the Kolkata attack, at their Varanasi residence.. Aftab’s mother Mohsina and sister Rukhsana, however, said they had no relationship with Aftab for more than two years.