During the day, the Shonai is a quiet sliver of flowing water, her soft murmur soothing in the heat of the afternoon sun. After dusk, when the night deepens, she turns into a silver ghost, a slim and silent rivulet that divides India and Bangladesh in Hakimpur, West Bengal. From witching hour until the crack of every dawn, she becomes the darling of illicit trade. Men in blue, white and black checked lungis, whose faces are concealed by red and white gamchas (scarves) are her shadowy companions in a lethal conspiracy that stretches across borders and strikes at the very heart of India and Bangladesh.
As this correspondent and his source stay hidden behind a partial embankment armed with mosquito repellent and unlit torches, they witness the Shonai’s slow transformation into a witness of a covert dance macabre.
Trucks arrive, their rumbling lost in the loneliness of the night when the world is asleep. In slow motion, they line up one by one the dry river bank, their load covered with canvases. Almost in tandem, lungi-clad men with furtive movements and quick steps appear from the darkness. Frenzied whispers follow—just a foot away from our hiding place, we see them take something glistening out of their waistbands, which are passed on.
They are small slabs that look like gold. The canvases are lifted with systematic precision, a suppressed ‘hur hur’ sound is raised. The sides of the trucks are lowered and bunches of cattle are dragged down, herded against the waiting vehicles, and then driven across the Shonai to another ill-fated destination.
This is the ‘Special Terror Zone’.
Across the Shonai, Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Shonar Bangla’ is a smugglers’ paradise. Cattle, gold, grenades, RDX, women, alcohol, you name it—all are available. Pleasure, crime, daily necessities and terror are in constant transit over the dried-up body of the rivulet that separates West Bengal’s North 24
Parganas and Bangladesh’s Saatkhira district.
Where are the border guards? Where is the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB)? The source gives a sly smile. “Come with me,” he says, as he springs up, and we pick up our pace, away from the bustling night bazaar of crime and terror. He is from a border village. Our ears pick up the faint sound of the latest item song, playing in the distance. The sound gets louder. The source, who earns his living as a trafficker, says with a laugh, “Both sides are equally corrupt. At night it costs only a few thousand rupees for a person to cross the border. Agents from Bangladesh bring in bottles of liquor and money for the guards.”
The BGB too is bribed. “While the officers and jawans enjoy themselves, it’s a free border for all. It is very easy for terrorists to cross over, as they have been doing for the last several decades. The situation has become different over the last four years with the change in the political scenario in West Bengal and Bangladesh,” he admits.
No currencies reportedly exchange hands. Instead, the age-old barter system passes for commerce. “In exchange for cows which are sent in thousands each day from West Bengal, gold biscuits are smuggled through these points. The cattle arrive from all over India in trucks and animal trafficking is the most lucrative business for local politicians of the ruling party. Gold biscuits are sent from Bangladesh where the price is low. For each biscuit that weighs 100 grams, the profit margin is between `8,000 and `10,000. A man wearing a lungi can easily bring in 10 kgs tied around his waist at a time,” the source adds.
Police say some of the terrorists involved in the Burdwan blast allegedly passed through here as it is one of the routes considered extremely easy and safe to cross. They were aided by local politicians, who supplied them with not just voter ID cards but even passports with the help of their political contacts in Burdwan, which lies far away from the border. This had gone unnoticed until the accidental blast took place on October 2, at Khagragarh blowing open a lid of terror abetted by politics.
Saatkhira is the epicentre for the majority of Muslim fundamentalist organisations in Bangladesh such as the Jamaat-e-Islami and its military wing, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen. Its umbrella bodies operate NGOs in West Bengal’s districts of North and South 24 Parganas. They also allegedly fund even some NGOs controlled by Hindus working with children with HIV/AIDS and mentally challenged and poor Muslim women to run self-help groups.
The entire district of North 24 Parganas shares the border with Saatkhira and there are pockets all along the Shonai, which are entry points for Islamic terrorists. In all hushed conversations, all along Swarupnagar to Taki in North 24 Parganas, Abdul Barik Biswas is a name that frequently crops up—of the brother of Gholam Biswas, the Trinamool Congress Zilla Parishad member for North 24 Parganas.
Once a small-time cow smuggler, three years ago he started buying property not only in his home district but also in Kolkata and New Delhi. Intelligence sources say he allegedly struck gold smuggling cattle.
Since gold was the clandestine currency in smuggling truckloads of cows, Biswas realised that the yellow metal was fetching him more dividends than rupees.
In May, he was intercepted by agents of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). He tried to whip out a 9mm pistol and start shooting, but was overpowered. Gold bars and biscuits worth `13 crore were found on him. He has been arrested once before for smuggling gold but was out on bail.
Biswas is known to have been once close to the CPI(M) as well as a local Congress leader. He was shrewd enough to switch loyalty to the TMC, after the 2011 state Assembly polls. He has been frequently seen occupying the stage during TMC programmes along with important leaders and hence the West Bengal police never dared to touch him.
Police say that though Biswas is in jail, his writ runs large from Swarupnagar to the end of the Sunderbans in South 24 Parganas. Though semi-literate, he owns three registered companies, which are being investigated by the Income Tax Department. State Intelligence branch officers allege, “He is one of the men responsible for Jamaat terrorists coming in from Bangladesh. Even from jail, he has sub-contracted operations at various points from Swarupnagar to the Sunderbans. All local politicians, police officers and even border officers are in his pocket. It is through these routes that the accused in
the Burdwan blasts entered West Bengal. It was a well chalked-out plan. In fact, one of the main accused, Sajid, and his wife too were helped by Biswas.”
Fatema, who was arrested last month in Bangladesh and was known as ‘Badhi Ammi’, and Sajid’s wife who had imparted training in arms and manufacturing of explosives to young women in several madrasas in West Bengal had entered India through this route. Intelligence sources say that she was provided shelter at Beleghata in eastern Kolkata by the local TMC legislator at the request of a low profile state minister who is an Urdu-speaking Muslim but nothing has been proved yet. After the 2011 polls in West Bengal and the general elections in Bangladesh in January, the conditions in the respective areas in Basirhat and Saatkhira became dangerous. During the election, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and its terror outfits had killed not only Hindus but also Awami League workers and torched their homes. They were also given arms as well as help of criminals from West Bengal.
The Sheikh Hasina government, after a massive victory, ordered a crackdown by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) of Bangladesh in Saatkhira. There was unprecedented violence but the RAB succeeded in demolishing the terror camps and a large number of Jamaat workers as well as its leaders fled to West Bengal. Basirhat town and adjoining places like Taki, situated on Ichhamati river banks, had always been peaceful and liberal where Muslims and Hindus lived in peaceful coexistence.
Aftabuddin Mondal, a tea stall owner at Talpukur, says, “Earlier, people belonging to different parties would sit drinking my tea and debate about politics. This was a very peaceful place till CPI(M) Panchayat Samiti member Jehangir was murdered by TMC workers. Now the situation has become vicious and after the Burdwan incident, everyone is suddenly keeping mum.” Asked about the Jamaat activities in the area, he says Tablighi Jamaat was very much active but is spreading only “spiritual Islam and asking people to surrender to Allah and discard the Communists and beware of the Hindu fanatics now ruling India”. However, some elders intervene and ask Mondal to shut up, warning him for talking to a stranger about issues which might cost him his life.
Such is the fear of Jamaat and its terror wings that not only Hindus but even Muslims refuse to discuss politics. While panic has spread among Muslims after the Khagragarh blast, even Hindus who had voted for BJP MLA Shamik Bhattacharya refuse to talk.
The majority of the citizens of the old town of Taki are educated Hindus and take pride in the fact that the former Army chief General Shankar Roychowdhury hails from there. They admit that they ensured the win of Bhattacharya but fall silent when asked about terrorist trafficking or the Jamaat activities. Their pet reply is: “Ask Shamikbabu.” Bhattacharya tells The New Sunday Express Magazine: “I have taken up the issues with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh as well as MoS Home Kiren Rijiju. I have also spoken to local BSF officials. I can claim that within two months I have stopped open trafficking of cows by trucks through the main roads at least in my constituency. But this is an age-old problem which has been going on for decades and I think it’s not possible for the BJP government at the Centre to stop it overnight.” But while all intelligence agencies, including those belonging to the Central Government, seemed to be hibernating, the Jamaat-e-Islami aided by Pakistan’s ISI has been very active and efficiently carrying out their crusade. Hounded in their own country, Jamaat leaders have found safe haven in West Bengal by crossing over the border and finding friends in the ruling party.
Amitabha Majumdar, a chartered accountant who filed a PIL in the Supreme Court on chit funds and claims to know about Sharada money being sent to Bangladesh, alleges: “After the Saatkhira crackdown, a number of top Jamaat leaders on their own crossed over and stayed for several months after renting a house at Basirhat. They’ve surrendered to the West Bengal police. After being charged under the Foreigners’ Act, they live in safety in Kolkata’s jails.”
Opening up on the Jamaat leaders’ political connections, Majumdar explains, “I have heard about a Rs, 85-crore deal to send Jamaat members to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal by a particular political party. Persons like TMC Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Hassan, a founder member of banned SIMI, is very much linked in the Sharada scam and allegedly sending funds to the Jamaat in Bangladesh. That proves the point.”
Bhattacharya too concurs and says that Basirhat sub-division had become a “breeding ground for terrorists from Bangladesh. This is certainly a safe corridor for anti-national jihadis. Because of the porous border, which has rivers, it is not possible for the BSF to stop infiltration by terrorists who are being harboured by the ruling TMC. Of 11 explosions by terrorists in India over the last several years, at least five were connected to Basirhat in some way or other.”
Known Jamaat leaders wanted in Bangladesh for crimes are reportedly vanishing from that country. Where are they? “The safest place for them now seems to be Basirhat as they can keep in touch with their people across the border very easily having obtained ID cards and SIM cards for mobile telephones with the help of TMC leaders,” Bhattacharya alleges.
The “Islamisation of Basirhat” through the Tablighi Jamaat is more or less complete. The cultural environment of the area has changed with burkhas replacing sarees and even salwar kameezes, which normally Bengali women and young girls would wear. Men mostly wear skull caps, kurtas and short pyjamas instead of shirts and lungis like normal Bengali men, including the Hindus in villages.
A Muslim CPI(M) leader who did not want to be named alleges, “Infiltration has been going on for ages here. But during the last few years after the TMC came to power, Islamic radicals are not only ruling the roost but have unleashed a reign of terror. Huge mosques with funding from the Gulf countries and South Africa are being built in places like Haroa, Kalikapur, Hasnabad, Makalgachhia. For the first time an air-conditioned madrasa is being built at Buripukur.”
The politics of expediency and appeasement has helped damage the social fabric in a big way. “Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had raised the issue of the mushrooming of madrasas with L K Advani, when he was the home minister in the last NDA government. In retaliation, the TMC campaigned against us alleging that we have sold ourselves to the BJP though it was Mamata Banerjee who was a Union minister in that cabinet,” he points out.
Several local Muslim leaders belonging to the CPI(M) and the Congress point out that the atmosphere has become vitiated in the area as all madrasas are being now viewed by the agencies as terror training grounds. Mohammad Abbasudin, a teacher in a state government-aided school at Bithari, points out, “The Nurul Amin madrasa at Basirhat was founded in 1945, and other than Arabic, it also offers secondary and higher education where all subjects, including Indian history as per the curriculum, is taught. We are Bengalis and Indian citizens who have never supported radical elements like the Jamaat. We had given shelter to refugees, including Hindus during the liberation war of Bangladesh. Because of some criminals in a political party we are being seen as traitors.”
Abbasudin’s daughter Sneha studies in Class XII. She loves dogs sums it up all. “I love wearing jeans but now cannot because of the Jamaat activists. I am scared that some day they might kill our Johnny since Islam is against keeping a dog as a pet.” She says the young women who were given arms training in madrasas and speak of jihad are poor and brainwashed. “This is the age of Internet and religion might be a personal practice but we need to move forward instead of staying in burkhas,” she says.
However, the disturbing factor in the area is the Jamaat-aided terrorists under the umbrella of Tablighi Jamaat are organising door-to-door campaigns as well as meetings of a different kind. Instead of saying “milad” they are stating “Islami club jalshas”. When pointed out that “jalshas” (cultural programmes with songs and dances) are banned in Islam, a local Muslim leader replies, “This is a tactic to attract Hindu youths. After all, clubs are flush with funds from the state government. It is merry-making for all. These functions will be recruiting grounds for the terrorists from Bangladesh. They will organise more blasts not only in West Bengal but in other parts of India. The problem with us is that we will be hounded by the police not in the interest of the country’s security but to fleece us.”
The deadly mix of Islamic terror and smuggling rackets, helped by West Bengal’s minority appeasement politics, makes India’s East a cradle for death and danger. Fear is the only factor.