SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 13, No. 24, December 15, 2014

INDIA

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West Bengal: Burdwan Blast: Deceit Exposed
Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management
Mrinal Kanta Das
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), investigating the October 2, 2014, Burdwan (Burdwan District, West Bengal, WB) blast case, arrested Sahanur Alom aka Doctor, one of the prime accused, on December 5, 2014, from Larkuchi village under the Mukalmua Police Station limits in the Nalbari District of Assam. Earlier, on November 11, another prime accused, Amjad Ali Sheikh aka Kajal was arrested from the Birbhum District of WB. Two other prime accused, S.K. Rahmatlla aka Sajid aka Burhan SK, and Habibur Rahman Sheikh aka Sheikh, were arrested on November 8 (from the Airport area of North 24-Parganas District) and October 15 (from Bolpur town in Birbhum District), respectively.

These four arrestees were among the 12 absconding accused in the case, against whom the NIA, on October 31, had declared cash rewards, ranging between INR 0.3 million to one million, for information leading to their arrest. Eight of absconders remain at large.

However, the total number of arrests in the case, from the date of the incident, stands at 10. In addition to the four prime accused, NIA arrested two suspects, Khaleed alias Khalid Mohammed and Zia-ul-Haque on November 17 (from Hyderabad, the joint capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), and on November 7 (from Malda District in WB), respectively. The NIA also has custody of three accused, who were arrested by WB Police from the incident site. Another accused, identified as Hashem Moulla aka Badre Alam, arrested by the WB Police from Burdwan during raids subsequent to the blast, is also in the custody of the NIA.

NIA took over the investigation of the blast case on October 10, 2014.

An accidental explosion took place in a rented two-storey house at Khagragarh under the Burdwan Police Station on October 2, 2014. Two persons were killed and another sustained injuries in the blast. As reports of alleged linkages to the explosion of a member of the ruling party in the State, the Trinamool Congress, started to emerge, attempts were made to hush up the incident, with the local Police dismissing it as a one-off accidental blast. Under increasing media and political pressure, however, the investigation was handed over the NIA, and a thorough investigation opened a Pandora's Box.

To begin with, the dead were, identified as Shakil Ahmed and Suvon Mandal aka Subhan, both active members of the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). Abdul Hakim aka Hassan who was arrested from the incident site in an injured condition, was also found to be a JMB member. All three were found to be natives of Bangladesh. JMB, operating within Bangladesh, had suffered major reverses in the offensive launched against it in the aftermath of the August 17, 2005, serial blasts. JMB had carried out 459 explosions in 63 Districts (out of a total of 64 Districts in Bangladesh) killing three people and injuring at least 100. JMB has almost been made non-operative under the Premiership of Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The organisation was in the process of regrouping through modules set up inside India, and had even planned to assassinate Prime Minister Hasina.

While it was matter of grave concern that a foreign terrorist outfit was attempting to establish a base inside India, the module’s alleged linkages with earlier incidents of subversion across India, and with the larger Islamist terror network in the country, were even more alarming.

Reports indicate that Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) terrorists, who had escaped from the Jatana area of Bijnor District in Uttar Pradesh on September 12, 2014, following an accidental blast (no casualties were reported), had close linkages with members of the Burdwan module. These SIMI cadres had earlier escaped from Khandawa Jail in Madhya Pradesh. Significantly, an unnamed officer involved in investigating the Burdwan blast disclosed, “There are also evidences (sic) to suggest that INR 6.50 lakh [650,000] recovered from the heist rooms (sic) of the terrorists in Bijnor belonged to the same SBI [State Bank of India] branch of Karimnagar [Karimnagar District of Telangana]. The investigating agencies had also recovered a part of the same money after Burdwan blast.” ‘Robbers’ had looted an SBI branch in Karimnagar on February 1, 2014, and had decamped with INR 4.6 million. Reports also indicate that the blast inside a stationary train at Chennai Railway station on May 1, 2014, in which a girl was killed, was engineered by terrorists who were also closely associated with the Burdwan module. Uncanny similarities were found in the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that exploded in Burdwan, and inside the train. Similarities have also been found between the devices in the Burdwan blast and the explosion at Masjid Bari Lane of the Garden Reach area in Kolkata on April 8, 2012. At least two persons were killed and another nine were injured in Masjid Bari Lane explosion, which was never investigated thoroughly, as the local Police once again dismissed the incident as a one-off accidental blast. It now emerges that Shakil Ahmed, one of the dead in the Burdwan blast, was in the Garden Reach area, working as a tailor, during those days.

The Burdwan module also had disturbing connections with other major terror outfits. Khaleed, arrested from Hyderabad on November 17, reportedly admitted to have undergone training conducted by Tehreek-e-Azadi-Arakan, operating in the Arakan area of Myanmar, along with trainers from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Meanwhile, investigators disclose that nearly 58 terror modules have bases in nine districts of West Bengal, including Burdwan, Birbhum, Nadia, Murshidabad, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Howrah, South 24-Parganas, and North 24-Parganas. Several of the madrassas (seminaries) across West Bengal and Assam are allegedly being used to propagate jihadi views. Simulia madrassa, on the outskirts of Burdwan town and Mukhimnagar madrassa in Mukhimnagar village of Murshidabad District, have been identified as major centres of such activities. At least 165 to 190 radicalized Bangladeshis have managed to sneak into India over the past few months, to join these modules.

JMB was planning to establish an 'Islamic state' in Bangladesh through armed struggle. The projected 'Islamic state' was intended to incorporate the West Bengal Districts of Murshidabad, Nadia, and Malda.

What was initially considered as a one-off accidental blast has turned out to be a major national security threat, with cross border connotations. This has occurred at a time when India is facing a larger challenge of containing the spread of Islamist radicalisation and the rising attraction among some fringe elements towards the global jihad. Crucially, at a time when Bangladesh has acted with extraordinary determination and effectiveness against jihadi formations on its soil, opportunistic politics in India appeared to have created safe havens on Indian soil for both domestic and Bangladeshi terrorist organisations. One such network has now been accidentally exposed - despite the WB Government's attempted cover-up - but others may yet survive, even flourish, under India's perverse politics of communal opportunism.

INDIA

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Odisha: Maoists: The Revolution in Retreat
Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management

Ending all speculations, on October 28, 2014, Nachika Linga, the leader of the Narayanpatna-based Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) front organization Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh (CMAS),  who was on the list of most-wanted in Odisha, surrendered at Bhaliaput village before a Police team led by the Inspector- in- Charge (IIC) of Narayanpatna Police Station in Koraput District. The surrender occurred in the presence of some local Panchayat (village level local self Government institution) representatives of the Narayanpatna block. Four of Linga's associates, Sekru Sirika, Ansu Wadeka, Kandru Huluka and Birsu Wadeka, also surrendered before the Police. However, Inspector General of Police (IGP) of South West range, Yashwant Jethwa, disclosed, “He was arrested after his surrender.” Nachika and four of his associates are presently in a jail in Koraput District, after the Laxmipur Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Court rejected their bail applications on October 29.

Nachika, had been evading arrest for his alleged involvement in around 43 cases pending against him in Koraput District, including that of murder, attempted murder and instigation of violence, and had 33 non-bailable warrants (NBWs) against him since November 2009. On November 20, 2009, while protesting outside the Narayanpatna Police Station for the removal of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel from the area and an end to combing operations against the Maoists, CMAS activists engaged in a brawl with CRPF personnel, which subsequently led to Police firing, in which two persons were killed. Following the incident, 110 persons were arrested, while Nachika Linga was declared “most wanted” by Odisha Police. Linga also had cases pending against him in Police Stations in the Parvatipuram area of Andhra Pradesh.

Nachika Linga was thought likely to surrender at a local court in Koraput District on March 11, 2014, in the presence of hundreds of his tribal supporters. Media reports indicated that he wanted to surrender and contest as an independent candidate from the Laxmipur Assembly seat of Koraput District, where elections were scheduled to be held on April 10, 2014. However, Linga did not show up at the court, apprehending imminent arrest after noticing the presence of a large number of Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and local Policemen. 

The Maoists had described Linga's intended surrender move as “drama”. In a signed two-page letter written in Odia and released in the night of March 16, Chemella Kristaya alias Bhaskar alias Daya, 'secretary' of the Koraput-Srikakulam 'joint division' of the Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC) of the CPI-Maoist, and Aruna, 'secretary' of the CPI-Maoist Narayanpatna Area Committee, accused Linga betraying the movement and striking a deal with the Police to get rid of the cases that were pending against him. They urged the tribals to disown him as their leader and his ‘selfish personal agenda’ of joining electoral politics, at the cost of larger interests of the tribal people.

When the Ryot Kuli Sangham [Peasant Labourers Association] of Parvatipuram (Vizianagaram District of Andhra Pradesh), which had spread its roots in Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon area of Koraput District in the name of Chasi Mulia Samiti, was declared a banned organisation in 2006, it reincarnated itself as the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha (Peasants, Labourers and Tribals Association), under the leadership of Nachika Linga, Arjuna Kendruka, Nachika Chamara and Wadeka Singana; Gananath Patra acted as their advisor.

By 2009, serious differences cropped up between Arjuna Kendruka, who led the Bandhugaon Block and Nachika Linga of the Narayanpatna Block. While Kendruka believed in a non-violent movement to secure land (by requests and donations) from the big land owners, Linga went on to grab land violently from these landlords. Linga also sought to mobilize people for violent movements to capture land from land lords, and to secure freedom from liquor and freedom from bonded labor. Difference also emerged over the utilization of CMAS funds. A political rivalry, less visible, but potentially more significant, also crystallized. Kendruka quietly secured a ticket from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) to contest from the Laxmipur Assembly constituency (Koraput District), during the 2009 State Assembly Polls, with CMAS support, while Linga was interested in getting the ticket. Subsequent developments gradually brought CMAS-Narayanpatna and CMAS-Bandhugaon to loggerheads.

Linga, who headed CMAS-Narayanpatna, progressively engaged in more and more violent activities, while Kendruka, heading CMAS-Bandhugaon began to express opposition to these methods. Finding an opportunity to corner the support of the tribals, the Maoists also increased their influence among CMAS-Narayanpatna followers, and the faction under Linga's leadership increasingly acted as a Maoist front organisation. However, unhappy with CMAS-Narayanpatna, the people of Laxmipur vowed to resist the organisation's attempts to expand activities its area or activity. Further, a meeting attended by around 15,000 supporters at Laxmipur under the leadership of Kumuda Saunta (chairman of the Laxmipur Block) on September 11, 2009, demanded a ban on CMAS-Narayanpatna for its recurrent violent activities.

After being declared “most wanted”, the fugitive Linga was driven even closer to the Maoists. The Maoists also provided all possible help to fugitive CMAS-Narayanpatna activists in their efforts at reorganisation in the District. Subsequently, Linga allegedly helped the Maoists in the abduction of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Jhina Hikaka, while he was returning home to Laxmipur from Semiliguda, near Toyapet village in Koraput District on March 24, 2012. Linga, however, denies any hand in the Hikaka abduction.

The surrender of CMAS supporters in large numbers in 2013 and the gradual decline of Maoist influence in the area appeared to prompt Linga break with the Maoists. As noted earlier, Linga's close associates and supporters from his native village, as well as other villages, surrendered before the Police and pledged not to support the Maoists. Odisha Police claimed that more than 2,400 CMAS supporters and sympathisers have surrendered. Further, with the Maoists finding him to be increasingly useless, they publicly disowned him in the wake of his failed attempt to surrender on March 11, 2014. Linga was eventually left with few options, other than surrender. 

With the arrest of Sabyasachi Panda from an aide's house in the Mangalavarampeta locality of Berhampur town in the Ganjam District on July 17, 2014, and now the surrender of Linga, the Maoists in Odisha have lost the services of their most violent face and their most prominent front organisation in the State.

Nevertheless, the Maoists continue to hang on. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database, as on December 14, Odisha has recorded a total of 40 Maoist-linked fatalities in 2014, including 30 civilians, one Special Police Officer and nine extremists, as against 54 such fatalities, including 22 civilians, seven Security Force (SF) personnel and 25 extremists through 2013. Significantly, fatalities had peaked in Odisha in 2010 - at the height of CMAS activity - with 108 killed (62 civilians, 21 SF personnel and 25 extremists). Crucially, the dramatic reductions in SF and Left Wing Extremist (LWE) fatalities, and the increase in the civilian category, indicate that the Maoists are avoiding confrontation with the SFs, while they quietly go about eliminating opposition at the ground level. Any complacency on the part of the state at this juncture may, consequently, galvanise the Maoists to more violent action.

BANGLADESH

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Uncharitable Charities
Sanchita Bhattacharya
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

Identifying and neutralising the sources of terrorist funding have become global concerns. The United States' Ambassador to Bangladesh, Dan W. Mozena, on December 10, 2014, asserted, “The terrorists who seek to destroy our communities of peace, diversity and tolerance have developed many avenues for generating money to fuel their vast machines of death...One source of financing terrorism and violent extremism is charity, the vast network of charitable organisations thrives across South Asia and we must fight back against it.”

Echoing similar concerns, Bangladesh Law Minister Anisul Huq stated, as reported on December 10, 2014, that millions of dollars were collected every year in the name of benevolence and charitable activities but a portion of it, either by design or exploitation of organisational structure, is diverted to fund acts of terrorism. The fight against terrorism should be a global and collaborative effort so that charitable and Non-Government Organisation (NGO) activities do no turn into support for terrorism, he added.

Bangladesh has a history of involvement in money-laundering and terrorist financing cases. Interestingly, the Bangladesh Cabinet, on December 1, 2014, approved the draft of the much awaited Foreign Contributions (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act, 2014, intended to regulate the flow of foreign aid being channelled to non-profit groups. The approval was given in the weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at the Bangladesh Secretariat, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed in the Chair. The proposed draft law is intended to ensure transparency, accountability, proper inspection, monitoring, evaluation and appropriate use of foreign funds by NGOs.

Cabinet Secretary M. Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan subsequently stated, "No NGO will be able to run its activities without taking registration from the NGO Affairs Bureau. No registration is required in case of individuals, but approval has to be taken from the Bureau... The proposed law has also a provision for punishment, cancellation of registration and imposition of fines for violating the law".

The Act is supposed to be a comprehensive and wide ranging legal instrument to provide support and regulation of NGO activities. It has been prepared by integrating two previous legal instruments: The Foreign Donations Voluntary Activities Regulation Ordinance, 1978; and the Foreign Contributions Regulation Ordinance, 1982.

December 6, 2014, reports indicated that Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank, had also asked commercial banks to take effective measures under the anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing laws to check illegal fund transfer and associated pecuniary offences. Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman noted that money-laundering offences hindered the socio-economic development of the country: "Such risk will increase gradually if money laundering is not prevented effectively... Recently, different banks have been fined due to non-compliance with the KYC provisions."

The previous Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012 and Anti Terrorism Amendment Act, 2013 also sought to regularise financial activities. The 2013 Act, provides capital punishment as highest penalty for terrorism and subversive activities. Further, it allowed the courts to accept videos, still photographs, and audio clips used in facebook, twitter, skype and other social media, as evidence. In December 2014, eight banks in Bangladesh were fined for not keeping client affidavits and not informing authorities of suspicious transactions in time. The banks include: Islami Bank, Premier Bank Limited, BRAC Bank, Mercantile Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, Southeast Bank, Uttara Bank and Bangladesh Investment Finance Corporation. They were slapped with fines ranging from Tk 200,000 to Tk 2 million under the law to prevent money laundering, Mohammad Mahfuzur Rahman, Deputy Head of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) disclosed.

In order to extract information on money laundering by various elements, the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), in the month of November 2014, sent Mutual Legal Assistance Requests (MLAR) to 14 countries, for information regarding alleged money laundering by the country's businessmen, politicians, industrialist, and government officials. However, ACC Secretary M. Maksudul Hasan Khan did not disclose the names of the 14 countries and the suspected money launderers.

Bangladesh has long been plagued by illicit financial transfers from both national and international sources. It is suspected that militants regularly tap into these illegal money flows to fund their operations. Money laundering is also a prime way of generating funds. Remittances from expatriate Bangladeshis working in the Middle East, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, are a further area of concern. There is a broad consensus that such techniques are used by militant organisations. One of the most significant links to funding from the Diaspora was uncovered in March 2009, when a madrasa (Islamic seminary) in Bhola District in southern Bangladesh was raided by an anti-terrorist unit, which seized 10 firearms, 2,500 rounds of ammunition and radical Islamic literature. Subsequent investigations revealed that the madrasa was funded by the British-registered charity Green Crescent.

Further, the Saudi Arabia-based al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, banned internationally by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1267, along with other charities from the Middle East, is infamous for financing terrorism in Bangladesh. NGOs and charities, such as the Kuwait-based Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS) and the Saudi Arabian Hayatul Igachha (HI), have also been linked to Islamist extremism in the country.

The Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) reportedly handled accounts of various Wahhabi organisations, that propagate radical Islam in the country.  In 2011, the Bangladeshi Home Ministry intelligence revealed that eight per cent of the Bank’s profits were diverted to support jihad in Bangladesh. Another sharia bank, Social Islami Bank, worked with HSBC. In 2011, the US Senate implicated HSBC for disregarding evidence of terror financing at the Social Islami Bank.

More recently in February 2014, UNSC provided definite information that al Qaeda network was active in Bangladesh. The UN has indicated that two NGOs, Global Relief Foundation and al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, working in Bangladesh, were involved with al Qaeda.

In a positive initiative, the Shiekh Hasina-led Government is not only trying to monitor and regulate NGO-related funding channels and activities, but, at the same time, is also looking into the bigger picture of financial fraud and terror connections. The existence of financial networks related to the infrastructure of terrorism in Bangladesh constitute a serious threat not only to the country itself, but to the stability of the wider region as well.

Civilians

Security Force Personnel

Terrorists/Insurgents

Total

INDIA

Assam

Jammu and Kashmir

Left-wing Extremism

Chhattisgarh

Jharkhand

Telangana

Total (INDIA)

PAKISTAN

Balochistan

FATA

KP

Punjab

Sindh

Total (PAKISTAN)