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Ashis Chakrabarti
Calcutta, April 4: Osama bin Laden's funds and forces have reportedly reached fundamentalist groups operating in West Bengal at the behest of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The West Bengal Government last month stumbled on the stunning fact that there are at least three new groups active in the state which have been receiving monetary and other support from the Saudi Arabian-born millionaire's network.
The three groups whose names were not immediately disclosed reportedly planned a conclave in mid-March at a mosque at the small town of Dhulian in Murshidabad district bordering Bangladesh.
Although the meeting did not take place following some arrests, the police and intelligence agencies picked up enough clues to know of the bin Laden connection. Highly-placed State Government sources told The Indian Express that the Centre had been informed of the development. ``At least on this there's no problem between us and the BJP government at the Centre. We are exchanging informationregularly and planning strategies jointly,'' Home Minister Buddhadev Bhattarcharyya said.
The bin Laden connection to some Islamic fundamentalist groups in the state came to light when the police arrested a man from Lalgola, also a Murshidabad town very close to the Bangladesh border, earlier this year.
According to the sources, the man from Lalgola was recruited as an ISI agent in New Delhi where his uncle lives. For several months, he used to carry letters to Rajshahi, the neighbouring Bangladeshi town. Then he was given the job of despatching a packet of explosives to a place in Haryana. The explosives were said to have been used in terrorist actions in Jammu and Kashmir.
Further evidence of the ISI-bin Laden operations in the state came out when the Customs Intelligence arrested a man travelling on a Siliguri-Calcutta bus. On interrogation, he was said to have given away his connection with ISI agents. But the biggest single catch was one Abu Naser who was reportedly involved in an ISI-backedterrorist plan to carry out explosions at several places in India, including the US consulate in Calcutta.
According to the sources, interrogation of the arrested ISI agents revealed that they had used at least seven ``shelters'' in Calcutta. ``But this could just be the tip of the iceberg,'' the sources said. The State Government was worried that the fundamentalist groups were using Calcutta for operations backed by the ISI. Earlier, the arrest of Pradip Gogoi, general secretary of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) also revealed his and the ULFA's links with ``some people'' in Karachi.
Other than Calcutta, the government has identified Murshidabad, Siliguri and Kishangunj in Bihar as the corridors frequented by ISI agents operating in the State. While Murshidabad and Kishangunj offer easy access from Bangladesh, the Siliguri corridor in north Bengal is used by Nepal agents.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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