By Soudhriti Bhabani, IANS
Kolkata : The Border Security Force (BSF) is equipping itself with hi-tech electronic gadgets to strengthen ground-level security along India's eastern border to tackle increasing influx from Bangladesh, including of suspected militants.
"Since the focus of terrorist outfits' infiltration has shifted from the western borders and Jammu and Kashmir to this part of the country (India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal), we have decided to electrify the entire 1,145 km-long fencing of the South Bengal Frontier (SBF) in the east," BSF Inspector General (SBF) Somesh Goyal told IANS.
He said the proposal has received the go-ahead from the higher authorities and "we are now waiting for the funds to come from the union home ministry."
On Saturday, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon held a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya ahead of his trip to Dhaka where he is likely to discuss the issue of terrorism.
India shares a 4,095 km-long border with Bangladesh, including the longest 2,216 km with West Bengal, part of which is porous, riverine and unfenced and prone to frequent infiltration and skirmishes.
Earlier, the BSF conducted a pilot project by electrifying a one-km stretch of border fence in the Krishnanagar area in West Bengal. The electrification continued in that particular stretch for one month and it was a big success in preventing illegal migration from across the border in that area.
BSF sources said they had put forward a proposal for acquiring the hand-held thermal imager – an advanced imaging device used for low light surveillance and security – which they say would help in monitoring large areas in south Bengal through a centralised system even at night.
The proposal was made quite a while ago and has yet to be sanctioned.
Goyal said that there would be one extra BSF battalion along the South Bengal Frontier (earlier there were 17 battalions) to monitor the present security situation on the eastern border.
The eastern border zone of BSF comprises West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya.
On the seriousness of cross-border terrorism, Goyal said home ministry reports pointed out that Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) – linked to Pakistan-based terrorist outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed – was recruiting Indian youths from the poverty-stricken border districts and sending them to Pakistan for training. They are then being re-inducted in Bangladesh to carry out terrorist attacks against India.
"As a security analyst I can say that it is much easier to carry out or plan terrorist activities in this part of India since the presence of Bangladeshi nationals is very strong in West Bengal. Here they also get two major railheads – the Howrah and Sealdah railway stations – to go to any part of the country," he said.
Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has spread its influence in Bangladesh due to the presence of several Islamic fundamentalist groups.
In May, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal told the Lok Sabha that the central government has taken appropriate measures to strengthen the border management system by installing electronic surveillance equipment and establishing more border outposts and has coordinated intelligence work by the lead intelligence agencies.
In his report he mentioned that terrorist outfits based in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir have infiltrated into India through the India-Bangladesh and India-Nepal borders for carrying out terrorist activities.
The bomb blast in Varanasi in March 2006 had been carried out by terrorists who had apparently come through the India-Bangladesh border.
The serial blasts on Mumbai local trains in July 2006 also had an allegedly Bangladesh connection since at least five terrorists involved in the blasts had infiltrated into India through the India-Bangladesh border, it was later found by Indian agencies.