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http://bdnews24.co m/bangladesh/2013/08/05/bangladesh-in-im-terro r-fo o tprint

Bangladesh in IM terror footprint

India Co rrespo ndent, bdnews24.co m

Published: 2013-08-05 10:15:40.0 BdST Updated: 2013-08-05 10:15:40.0 BdST

Invest igat ions int o t he Jul 7 bombings at t he Buddhist holy t own of Bodh Gaya has provided Indian int elligence wit h evidence of an ever-widening f oot print of t he count ry's powerf ul Islamic radical group int o it s nort heast ern region and neighbouring Bangladesh.
T he Indian Mujahideen, which is responsible f or some of the bloodiest bombings in Indian temples and public places over the last decade or more, has now tied up with smaller Islamic radicals groups in northeast India and Bangladesh, Intelligence Bureau (IB) of f icials said. "T hey have played into growing Muslim angst over last year's riots in Assam's Bodo areas and against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state," said an IB joint director but on condition of anonymity f or prof essional reasons. T he IM, the acronym by which the terror outf it is better known, f irst positioned itself in Assam's western and central regions which were hit by riots in which Muslims of East Bengali origin were targeted extensively. "T he IM created a relief f ront with considerable f inance that operated through a wide network of mosques in Assam. T hey worked their way into the vacuum created by the riots and the state government's f ailure to take care of the beleaguered minorities," the IB of f icial said, sitting on details of this network which he was unwilling to share, so that "our penetration into these networks are not revealed ". T he IB of f icial said the relief f ront also picked on radicalised Muslim youths f rom these areas and IM modules started to train them in bombings, weapons use and sabotagecommunication techniques. One such module f rom Assam, created out of the remnants of the f ormer Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA), is said to be responsible f or the Bodh Gaya bombings. Bodh Gaya was targeted because it is visited by tens of thousands of Buddhist f rom Myanmar, where Rohingya Muslims f aced considerable violence and displacement. T he Lotus clocks which were used f or the more than a dozen time-bombs that exploded in Bodh Gaya on Jul 7 were all bought in Assam a year ago, when the IM was expanding its network into the state in the af termath of the violence in Bodo areas. IB investigators have traced back the purchase of the Lotus clocks and now have a f air idea of the explosives devices created around it to go of f on pre-set timings. Not only did the IM raised its modules in Assam f rom remnants of older and somewhat def unct Muslim radical groups like MULTA, it also penetrated neighbouring Bangladesh to tap into the radical groups that have been in

disarray f ollowing heavy crackdown by the Sheikh Hasina government. "T he IM has moved into Sylhet and Chittagong regions in a big way, tapping into radicalised Muslim youths f rom Jamaat-Shibir combine, HUJI and Rohingya armed groups which were suf f ering a huge crackdown by Bangladesh security agencies," a senior of f icial of India's external intelligence said. He said the Rohingya suf f erings in Myanmar and the war crimes trials in Bangladesh, in which Jamaat leaders were handed out death sentences, were whipped up to tap into radicalised youth f or developing terror modules. Reports have been received of a tie-up between Laskhar e Tayyaba (LET ) and Indian Mujahideen to develop the terror modules in Bangladesh. T his has been revealed by arrested IM operatives Syed Maqbool and Imran Khan who are being heavily interrogated by Indian intelligence. Indian signals-cyber surveillance that ruotinely picks on 'extremist chatter' also points to the tie-up. "We are checking on reports that dozens of young Muslims have been recruited by these two outf its with help f rom Bangladesh's overground Islamist parties and are being trained in suicide bombings and controlled explosions in secret bases used by Rohingya rebels on Bangladesh-Myanmar border," the external intelligence of f icial said. He said Bangladesh and Myanmar intelligence have been f ed back the leads which they are also pursuing on their own. At least one such base has been located in Chittagong Hill Tracts - Arakans border. All this points to a growing trans-national network of radicalised terror modules out to avenge Muslim woes in Assam and Arakans or punishment of Islamists in Bangladesh operating on a sub-continental scale a new challenge f or security agencies in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. T he current investigations also f ocus on the role of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) which built up both the LET and the IM and the possible linkages of the terror modules in the eastern slice of South Asia with those in Af ghanistan-Pakistan (AFPAK) region. T he LET which was responsible f or the 26/11 Mumbai attacks now operates out of Pakistan under a new name, Jamaat-ud-Dawa , which is projected as the charity group, the kind of cover IM used to expand into Assam last year.