KOLKATA: The Ministry of Home Affairs had forewarned the West Bengal and Assam Governments of possible terror attacks by “followers of Osama bin Laden groups and elements owing allegiance or supporting the al-Qaeda”.
The Intelligence Bureau, in a report dated September 22, (Ref No 3627-60 and 3698-3731/C&R Cell-C-2/S11) had stated that the al-Jihad, which was launched by al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and other Islamic terrorist outfits, particularly in Bangladesh, would target prominent places in the country to foment communal tensions in states where there were substantial Muslim populations.
A Ministry of Home Affairs report, based on the IB note sheet, was despatched to all state governments and specially marked to West Bengal and Assam.
In these two states, which share long porous borders with Bangladesh, terror groups belonging to the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, HUJI, Ansarullah Bangla Team and Jamaat-ul-Muslimeen, along with sleeper cells of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, would engineer bomb blasts at important commercial centres like stock exchanges, airports, railways, popular religious places and the BJP offices.
Other than the BJP offices, they might also target other political organisations, which were opposed to “Islamic rule and openly campaigned against Muslim fundamentalists”.
The IB report also mentioned that “jihadis” trained in West Bengal, lower Assam and several others, who had infiltrated from Rajshahi and Satkhira in Bangladesh, planned to fan out all over the country and
create havoc, with an aim towards “disrupting communal harmony and increasing tension” in Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, J& and Delhi.
The report stated that following Zawahiri’s latest sermon, the al-Qaeda, being the “pioneer of Islamic terror organisations”, would spread “Islamic rule, with the intention of establishing a Caliphate”, and “raise the flag of jihad all over the Indian subcontinent”.
The prime intelligence agency stated that recruitment to achieve its goals had been going on in several states, mainly in Eastern and Southern India.