Copyright
© 2006 Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin
 |
 |
TOP STORY
Leftist-Islamist cooperation in Asia
New advances in Mainly Hindu Nepal
seen
|
|
Publishing Date: 19.08.06
20:12
|
Nepal:
New stomping grounds for
al-Qaida? | By Dr. Richard
L. Benkin
A new Indian documentary provides
visual and other evidence that Islamist attempts to secure a base on
Northeastern India are "at an advanced
state."
According to the documentary by Indian Mayank
Jain, "A conspiracy has been hatched by Pakistan's Inter Services
Intelligence and fundamentalists from Bangladesh to carve out an
Islamic country comprising Asom, Tripura, and West Bengal," as well
as Bangladesh. The three Indian states almost totally surround
Bangladesh on the North, East, and West. Bangladesh is the
world's third largest Muslim nation and the seventh largest nation
on earth both by population, and it actually separates Asom and
Tripura from the rest of India.
As previously reported
in G2B, al-Qaida forces have been steadily relocating from
Afghanistan through Pakistan and Kashmir to settle in neighboring
Nepal. What is curious about that venue is that Nepal is 89
percent Hindu with most of the remaining population Buddhist.
But while Nepal in not a candidate to become the next
Taliban state, it serves as a safe haven for Islamists with their
eyes on transforming Bangladesh into one. Nepal is almost
contiguous with Bangladesh at one point and the porous border
presents a potential entry point for Islamists to infiltrate that
nation and skew its January election results in favor of their
cohorts there. West Bengal, one of the states mentioned in the
documentary, is the land mass between the two
countries.
The documentary was based on reports by the
Indian Task Force on Border Management and from the former governor
of Asom (previously Assam), Lt. Gen. SK Sinha, (ret.). It also
contained reports by former Indian Intelligence Bureau Chief TV
Rajeswar and opposition leader, Arun Shourie. Sinha has been
particularly outspoken about the "security, demography, and
integrity" threat from the influx of these Islamic
fundamentalists. The documentary alleges that they are now
"the deciding factor" in about one-third of all Asom local
elections. And the "demographic invasion," as the documentary
calls it, is continuing unchecked.
These trends,
however, are not entirely new. They were noted as early as the
period of Britain's mandate over India and increased with
Bangladesh's 1971 war of secession. Bangladeshi nationalists
argued that these territories should be annexed to the new nation
"to balance" the economy and society. While no serious talks
were ever implemented on that matter, the influx of Bangladeshis to
that region has been steady ever since. Today, however, within
the context of Islamist imperialist designs, this established trend
has taken on a new and more menacing character. The immigrants
are not simply impoverished Bangladeshis looking for a better life
but primarily trained al-Qaida sympathizers.
Both the
Americans and the British raised concerns about this in 2004.
U.S. Ambassador to India David C. Mulford even offered U.S. help in
the form of the FBI after terrorist bombings in Assam in October of
that year. Assam's Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi seized upon
Mulford's offer enthusiastically; but the assistance never came
after procedural irregularities were cited. We have now
learned, however, that Indian leftists seized upon these
irregularities to prevent American assistance in ferreting out the
Islamists. Beyond that, the director general of police in
neighboring Tripura believes that Chinese intelligence is also
abetting the region's growing militancy. "It is really a
matter of serious concern that several anti-India forces of China,
Myanmar, Pakistan and Bangladesh are trying hard to create unrest in
northeastern states by using the fundamentalists and separatist
forces of the region." He said Chinese intelligence forces
were present "in the field" in the region.
Since 2004,
the United Liberation Front of Asom has been working closely with
Pakistani jihadists (and some say Pakistani intelligence) in that
state. The UFLA platform calls for a "sovereign, socialist
Assam." Earlier, the UFLA agitated strongly against Muslim
immigration to Asom and its members labeled by Muslims as "Hindu
fundamentalists." But by 2004, the UFLA was one of the leftist
groups that helped prevent effective aid to the Asom government in
stopping the growing Islamists movement there. At about the
same time, the UFLA amended its statement of principles specifically
re-define "Asamiya" to include non-Assamese speaking Muslims from
"East Bengal."
According to the new documentary, Indian
Intelligence has identified large numbers of Muslim fundamentalists
"with a direct link to al-Qaida," providing financial backing, arms,
arms training. It also alleges that "the trained youths have suicide
squads," which conforms to the terror bombing by Islamists in
Bangladesh. The documentary strengthens the previous G2B
analyses in these pages that identified the al-Qaida presence in a
chaotic Nepal as a way station for its taking Bangladesh. But
the new intelligence findings point to an effort at a greater South
Asian Islamist state. As noted by intelligence sources in the
documentary, Siliguri corridor, the sliver of land between Nepal and
these areas in India and Bangladesh, is the preferred entry point
for the infiltrators, as they exit their hiding places in
Nepal.
Dr. Richard L. Benkin has written
extensively in and about Bangladesh and other matters relating to
the Middle East and the Islamist threat; and he can be reached
through his website -- http://www.interfaithstrength.com/.
Benkin runs the site jointly with Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin
Shoaib Choudhury. Choudhury, an anti-Islamist Muslim, was
falsely imprisoned and tortured until Benkin succeeded in winning
his release.
|
|
