By IANS,
Guwahati : A massive security alert was sounded across Assam Saturday with intelligence inputs hinting that militants, including Islamist terror groups like the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), were planning to strike ahead of Independence Day Aug 15, officials said.
A police spokesman said security forces were deployed in strength across the state with reports that militants of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in collaboration with outfits like the HuJI were planning to strike in Assam.
“There are several such reports of the ULFA and other fundamentalist groups, including the HuJI, trying to strike ahead of Aug 15. We are on full alert with security deployed at vantage positions to thwart such attempts,” Assam police spokesman B.J. Mahanta said.
According to intelligence reports, there could be at least six to seven Islamist fundamentalist groups active in Assam with most of them having bases along the state’s 262 km border with Bangladesh.
“Most of these Islamist groups have their roots in Bangladesh and now trying to penetrate into Assam for carrying out subversive activities,” an intelligence official said.
Meanwhile, security forces in Assam’s main city of Guwahati went into an overdrive Saturday with intelligence reports that a group of five ULFA rebels armed with sophisticated weapons and explosives had sneaked into the city to stage terror strikes.
“We have alerted all our forces and putting up roadblocks and carrying out frisking and search operations in the city,” Senior Superintendent of Police (Guwahati city) V.K. Ramisetti said.