Many heaved a sigh of relief when 26/11 passed off peacefully once again. But the fear about the recurrence of a terrorist attack in Mumbai on 26/11 seems unrealistic, if not somewhat frivolous. Even if the date is commemorated, Mumbai is unlikely to be the victim again.
A lapse on the part of the Government is that it can neither afford to look beyond the date of occurrence of the incident nor can it maintain constant vigil to prevent attempts by militant outfits to develop their hideouts in places other than Mumbai. If Hafiz Sayeed is accused of Mumbai bomb blasts, there are other militant leaders too who are playing major roles to breach peace in small places in the country. But they are hardly noticed while ruling the roost for want of information about their involvement in terrorist attacks in major cities.
Incidentally, India -- that has witnessed the most heinous incident of militant activities on 26/11/2008 -- did not lag behind world leaders while taking a vow to launch a collective offensive against ISIS across the globe after the infamous terrorist attacks in Paris on 13/11 this year -- appears to have refused to accept the truth that apart from 26/11 and Mumbai, there may be other targets too in the cross-hairs of militants. In fact, the anti-terrorist exercise at the ground level appears to be a hoax. The Government machinery has swung into action to foil possible terrorist attacks in big cities only and they appear to be unencumbered by what the threat small places are faced with.
The ISIS cadres are active in the country and believed to have enough leverage to subvert the system that is gearing up to flush out terrorism from the world. Much against the speculation that big cities are on the target of terrorist outfits with advisories issued regularly to beef up security measures in Mumbai before 26/11, the ISIS is supposed to be developing sleeper cell in small places. Terrorist outfits are, in fact, believed to have identified obscure places to carry out their game plans.
Militants associated with the ISIS have reportedly been drafted to hold regular meetings with locals to motivate pro-Islam dwellers in sleepy hamlets of Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal in particular. They are said to be funded from Saudi Arabia to work in tandem with ISIS associates active in the country.
As per intelligence inputs, Cuttack district in Odisha is the new base-camp for ISIS operations in the eastern region. The Cuttack unit is said to be functioning under the leadership of one Abdur Rehman who has been entrusted with the task of disseminating teachings about the ISIS movement among pro-Islam masses in small places of Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
If well-placed sources in the intelligence agencies are to be believed, Rehman belongs to an organisation called JeM and is allegedly dubbed as an agent of the ISIS in the region. Rehman has frequented Jharkhand and Bihar on several occasions in the past one month. While he initially held public meetings in remote areas of Jharkhand, he subsequently preferred to interact with people in Muslim-dominated areas directly by holding secret parleys too.
The official dossier of intelligence agencies reveals that Rehman addressed a turnout of about five thousand people from the Muslim community in the interior of Lohardaga district of Jharkhand in the last week of October. He called upon the youth to join ISIS to strengthen the anti-Government forces. He was quoted saying in the Lohardaga meeting that the ISIS was committed to dislodge the elected Government in the State and would be able to hoist black flags -- belonging to the ISIS -- in the State capital of Jharkhand, Ranchi, if the outfit could get rid of ‘traitors’.
Subsequently, he held a series of secret parleys in Muslim dominated areas of Hindpiri of Ranchi city. He met Muslim youth in groups of 40 to 50 and persuaded them to follow the dictates of ISIS in lieu of being funded for an avowed objective to subvert the system. Rehman is said to have held closed door meetings with youths in Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Bokaro cities of Jharkhand too.
The ISIS has valid reasons to evince overt interests in small places in Jharkhand in the light of the fact that other militant outfits already have their sleeper cells in the State and it finds the area as a safe hideout to carry out its operation in league with them. It is learnt that key activists of the Indian Mujahideen such as Imtiyaz Mujibullah, Numan, Taufiq and SIMI operative Haider Ali alias Black Beauty were nabbed from the outskirts of Ranchi in connection with bomb blasts at Narendra Modi’s rally at Patna in Bihar in October 2013 -- ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 -- while the key accused of the Burdwan serial bomb blasts, Tariqul Islam alias Sadik alias Sumon of Jamat-ul-Mujahideen of Bangladesh was arrested from Sahebganj area of Jharkhand ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meeting in Dumka on October 2 this year.
In addition, during the recent Assembly elections in Bihar, ISIS operatives were seen active in the State, though they could not vitiate the electioneering. The ISIS is said to be running training camps for new recruits in Bihar. The action assumes greater significance in the light of the fact that the state shares international borders with Bangladesh and Nepal. The outfit has an equal opportunity in West Bengal to make its presence felt in league with the Indian Mujahideen and Jamat-ul-Mujahideen that have strong bases in the State.
To top it all, the pertinent question is; if Rehman is an ISIS suspect why he is allowed to move scot-free and impart training of militant operations to pro-Islam youths in the country in spite of intelligence inputs? Or how his regular presence in Lohardaga in particular could be ignored when the area is going to assembly by-poll next month?
BW Reporters
D.P. Sharan has been a journalist for the past 30 years and has served many national dailies, magazines and channels. He has also been a member at the Central Board of Film Certification, Mumbai under I&B Ministry, Government of India
_20240920205457_original_image_22.webp)
