North-East “burning”

*** CAUTION: LONG POST ***

This is an unusual blog-post. It is actually�a series of excerpts from�articles that speak for themselves.

Please read and share with everyone who is even a little bit concerned about India.

We cannot afford to remain mute spectators…

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First, some excerpts from a richly referenced analysis, “The Shiliguri Corridor: Question Mark on Security” by Pinaki Bhattacharya:�

“A critical futuristic threat perception vis-�-vis India�s North Eastern region has long preoccupied many analysts and the Indian security establishment. The projected exercise would involve Pakistan launching an attack on Jammu and Kashmir. At the other end, China would engage India militarily in the latter�s Northeast with movement from Tibet, through Bhutan and via Alipurduar in the Jalpaiguri district and consequently cut-off what is referred to as the eastern chicken�s neck or the Shiliguri corridor. An Indian strategists� nightmare come true.

….In such a projected war scenario, while India battles Pakistan and China, behind the lines of the security forces guarding the narrow strip of land called the Shiliguri corridor, which at its narrowest is 20 kilometres long and just 20 kilometres wide in the general area south west of Shiliguri, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the Bodos, the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation and other subversives trained in Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan raise attrition to a feverish pitch. China could, it is projected, choose to cut the chicken�s neck with irreversible consequences vis-�-vis India�s Northeast.

A reasonable assumption of this nature reportedly influenced a group of senior Indian security officials to meet in May 2000.1 The meeting concluded that a constant vigil needed to be maintained at the Bagdogra airport in Jalpaiguri and railway stations like New Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar, as also at Kishanganj and Katihar in the State of Bihar. Such a constant vigil was directed towards monitoring the movement of those who are rather quaintly called ANEs (anti-national elements). The meeting also resolved that a joint operation of Assam and West Bengal police needs to be launched to flush out terrorists, besides beefing up the deployment of security forces.

…The Shiliguri Corridor3 is an area of 12,203 square kilometers connecting mainland India with the outlying border States of the Northeast. An intelligence report of one of security forces operating in the area states: “As geographical configuration puts the North Eastern States of our country at a disadvantage for a lack of strategic depth, considered necessary to provide a buffer, the tenuous lines of communication (that run through this corridor) connect mainland India to the Northeast.” The corridor�s dimensions extend lengthwise approximately 200 kms with a width varying between 20 and 60 kilometres. It houses the all-important feeder highways number NH 31 and 31a and the North Frontier Railways.

…The corridor is also significant in light of the vital installations located around it, like the airfields of Hashimara and Bagdogra, and the oil pipelines, which run through the corridor. These installations are considered to be lethal sabotage targets for insurgent groups lurking behind the lines of defence.

One of the key borders that abut the corridor is with Nepal, stretching 144 kilometres on the other side of north Bengal. Being unmanned, the long stretch of the border proves immensely conducive for infiltration and also as a point of egress for ANEs originating in Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Furthermore, the Indo-Nepal Friendship treaty of 1950, which guarantees free and unhindered movement of Nepalese citizens between the two nations, has been handy for infiltration exercises.

…According to premier intelligence agencies, the Shiliguri corridor faces threat not only from this pattern of free movement of personnel and goods through the border areas, but also from insurgents operating from Bhutan and particularly in Assam. The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) militants have been using the corridor for their movement for a long time. The recent emergence of another insurgent outfit, called the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO),7 in north Bengal, is adding to the worries of the security forces.

…Reports also suggest that the ISI was supplying a large quantity of arms and ammunition to the various Northeast terrorist outfits from the stockpiles of the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia after their defeat and eventual obliteration.24 These were picked up from the markets of Thailand and were transported to Cox�s Bazar in Bangladesh, eventually to be used on Indian soil. The arms were shipped from Thai ports to Cox�s Bazaar and were then carried on headloads for rest of the way.25 The recipients were the NSCN-IM, ULFA and the Bodo groups.

…Shiliguri town is a gateway to Guwahati in Assam, Gangtok in Sikkim and Kishengunj in Bihar. It also shares borders with three countries � Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. The town�s cosmopolitan character, grown out of it being “an island of prosperity,” makes it easier for outsiders to get assimilated into the local populace, thus providing perfect cover to the subversives. In fact, the West Bengal government had admitted on the floor of the State Legislative Assembly in 1999 that the Shiliguri corridor ran the risk of being sabotaged by ISI agents.

…Security agencies are also concerned at the mushrooming growth of mosques and madrassas (religious seminaries) in the region. According to their estimate, in the last five years the total number of madrassas that have come up in the Shiliguri Corridor area are as follows: Coochbehar � 45, Jalpaiguri � 44, Shiliguri � 63 and Islampur sub-division, North 5, Dinajpur � 467. Of these only 23 in Coochbehar are recognized by the West Bengal government; eight in Jalpaiguri; two in Shiliguri and seven in Islampur. Yet, the others are flourishing with no dearth of funds. Intelligence sources suspect that people having linkages with Pakistan-based terrorist outfits have set up at least some of these mosques and madrassas.

…According to intelligence sources, another organisation called Tabligh-e-Jamaat is also reported to be active around the Shiliguri Corridor. They hold regular meetings along Champasari and Bardhaman Road near Hawra camp in Shiliguri and are also in contact with the Harkat-ul-Ansar in Nepal. There are also indications of close linkages between the two groups, with senior members of each attending the meetings of the other. Although the activity of the organisation is discreet, it reportedly includes anti-India propaganda, �universalisation� of Islam and raising funds for �Islamic causes.�

…The demographic profile within a 5-kilometre belt of the international border with Bangladesh has undergone rapid changes. According to intelligence sources, in Jalpaiguri district, while the population of Hindus and Muslims has been 1,35,938 and 1,63,522 respectively in 1981, in 1991 it rose to 1,90,805 and 2,35,733 respectively. In Coochbehar, the figure in 1981 was 2,17,588 and 1,41,001 respectively; while in 1991 it was 2,94,038 and 1,85,528 respectively. In the Shiliguri sub-division of Darjeeling district, the numbers were 48,110 and 71,215, respectively, in 1981; while in 1991, they were 72,518 and 1,12.302, respectively. In the Islampur and Raigunj sub-divisions of north Dinajpur, they were 1,78,583 and 2,60,507, respectively, in 1981; rising to 2,51,472 and 3,41,325, respectively, in 1991.

In early 1999, a media report had indicated that a significant demographic transformation was occurring around the Corridor, causing serious concern among security agencies. The report, quoting official sources, pointed out that, while in 1971 the Muslim population was 15 per cent, in recent years it has touched a high of 70 per cent in some areas, primarily due to illegal immigration from Bangladesh. The report referred to the phenomenon of a large number of Muslim immigrants residing in Islampur of North Dinajpur district as also Kishangunj of Bihar. The report had also claimed that untrammelled passage through these areas was available to the thousands of Bihari Muslims who claim Pakistan�s nationality but remain in Bangladesh because the former refuses to take them in.29

…Before 1947, the North Eastern States, especially Assam, were connected with the mainland through waterways, road and railway networks running through what was then a part of the Bengal Presidency and later named East Pakistan and, eventually, Bangladesh. Thus, linkages between that country and the Assamese were deep, and these, the ISI later sought to exploit.

…the former Director of the Intelligence Bureau and former Governor of West Bengal, T V Rajeshwar (said): “It is not Kashmir alone which should cause anxiety. The Bangladeshi infiltration, which continues unabated, has changed the demographic pattern of eastern India. There is a grave danger to the Shiliguri Corridor, which is the lifeline of the seven North Eastern states and Sikkim, because of the concentration of the Bangladeshi migrants there. Bengal�s premier in 1946, Nizamuddin, wrote to Governor R.G. Casey that Bengal would soon become a Muslim majority province if left undisturbed. Even if his dream was belied because of the Partition, Dr. Henry Kissinger�s foreboding of a Muslim majority state emerging from within Indian borders is there to contend with.”33

***� End of Excerpts ***

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Next, read these excerpts from an�article in�the Sunday Pioneer�(by Bibhu Prasad Routray), reproduced via EastIndiaWatch:

“The Parliamentary Standing Committee for the Ministry of Home Affairs, in its recent report, has asked the Government to monitor the country’s eastern border, saying large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh is threatening the country’s security and economy. The report said that a large presence of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants posed a grave threat to India’s security and economy as many border-crossers come with sophisticated weapons and ammunition to fuel terrorism. They also carry a large amount of fake Indian currency to weaken the economy, the report added. The Annual Report of the Ministry of Home Affairs, 2007-08, too, has expressed similar apprehensions.

…While for the last couple of years, the Pakistani terror network originating in Bangladesh has received some attention, the critical role played by the illegal Bangladeshi migrants in India in such operations appears to have been lost sight of. Even the hullabaloo over the ever-growing number of migrants from Bangladesh, mostly described as demographic invasion of a serious kind, by mainstream political parties has hardly taken note of the subversive potential of the rather innocuous population flow from our eastern neighbour. And the political parties, for whom these migrants have become lucrative vote-banks, have taken great care to push any debate linking them with terror elements under the carpet.

…Footprints of Bangladeshi nationals, often illegal residents in this country, have been unambiguous in the number of terror strikes in Indian urban centres that have taken place in the last couple of years.

Bangladesh has been a common thread running through the attacks carried out in New Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Hyderabad and Nasik.

…The official response to the threat remains clueless and strangely dependant on non-existent Bangladeshi co-operation. On April 23, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Parliament, “Illegal migration is a genuine problem, but Bangladesh refuses to recognise it. How this could be solved when Bangladesh does not want to accept it?”

***� End of Excerpts ***

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Next, excerpts from�Welcome to a New Home�by Satrujit Banerjee

“A front-page newspaper report last month put some numbers on the worst kept secret among demographers in the country. It revealed that �intelligence agencies� had pegged the inward flow of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to India at �anywhere between 1.5 crore and 2 crore�. The survey, conducted discreetly in 1992, was �kept secret in view of the sensitive findings�. But when leaked later, it did not cause any ripples even in West Bengal, Bihar and Assam, the three states most affected by the influx.

It now appears that since madrasas and mosques were coming up in increasing numbers along the border, the government felt the need to revisit the illegal migrants issue specifically to determine if a correlation exists between the influx and the increase in terrorist attacks in India. The new survey, using the 2001 census as the base, reveals a dramatic increase in Muslim population in every district bordering Bangladesh in these three states since then. West Bengal with 11 such districts was the worst affected.

The history of illegal migration from Bangladesh is worth recounting.

When large numbers were spilling over into Assam in the Sixties and in the Seventies, the then Congress government, which had an overwhelming majority in the parliament, passed the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act. This, in essence, took away the onus of proving nationality from the migrant and transferred it to the citizen who had to lodge a complaint before a tribunal and pay a fee to engage its services. Moreover, whereas the rest of India had July 19, 1948, as the cut-off date for Indian citizenship of migrants, the date for Assam was March 25, 1971. Not surprisingly, even though the Supreme Court struck down the act in July 2005, people living in the border districts of Bangladesh have always felt that if they were to cross over to India, they would somehow be accommodated.

…With a population density of 2,638 persons per square mile, many righteous Bangladeshis feel that they have a just cause for conquering their neighbours� lebensraum, or �living space�. If migration, legal or otherwise, was the answer, so be it.

Writing in the October 18 issue of the weekly, Holiday, 17 years ago, prominent journalist, Sadeq Khan argued that �by the first decade of the 21st century, Bangladesh will face a serious crisis of lebensraum. No possible performance of population planning, actual or hypothetical, significantly alters that prediction�. He further argues that the �colonial devastation of Bengal in the 18th and 19th centuries left the region of Bangladesh bereft of traditional strength of technology and productivity�, and that a �natural overflow of population pressure is therefore very much on the cards and will not be restrainable by barbed wire or border patrol measures�.

This explains why Bangladesh vehemently opposes fencing of the border and why it is reluctant to accept repatriated nationals. The motto clearly is that the greater the number of people leaving the country, the better it is for its larger interest.

The obvious reason why the state governments affected do not act effectively to deter the influx is that the greater the Muslim influx, the bigger the vote bank. Moreover, a crackdown would undoubtedly result in not only losing the migrant vote, but also that of the indigenous Muslim population. In the last elections, of the 294 seats in the West Bengal legislature, the Muslim vote proved to be crucial in 114 seats.

***� End of Excerpts ***

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Next, a statement of the obvious (from�a report by the Standing Committee on Home Affairs):

“…Days after India asked Bangladesh to keep tabs on illegal migrants…a parliamentary panel has endorsed New Delhi’s concern, saying that the “large presence of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants poses a grave threat to the internal security”.

…the Standing Committee on Home Affairs also took note of reports about the reach of such migrants who not only procured ration cards, driving licences and voter identity cards but also PAN cards to hide their nationality.

…The committee, headed by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, also took note of the large circulation of counterfeit currency along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

***� End of Excerpts ***

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Finally, for those of you who wish to delve deeper into this, I came across a well-researched and data-rich report on the demographic changes in the region that I have added to my “Docs and Slides” folder (left column down the middle). I have labelled�it as “Endangered Demography West Bengal Study.pdf“. You can download it by clicking on the link. (Disclaimer: I have not read it yet; only glanced through it hurriedly)

Also see a�graphical depiction of�the�demographic makeover of West Bengal…I have not verified the data but if true, the numbers cited are astounding.� The �decadal growth rate of Muslim population in these districts – which far surpasses the general population growth rate (between ’91 – ’01) is -�to a large extent -�a direct result of uncontrolled, illegal infiltration into the area.� I need not emphasise�not only does this pose a serious security risk but it�also threatens�economic stability and evelopment in the region.� But is anyone listening?

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What�can we conclude from all this?

1] India is facing a�grave demographic and national security threat from Bangladesh and via uncontrolled borders throughout the North East (including the border with Nepal)

2] The government is unwilling to tackle this issue head on in spite of repeated warnings, alerts and numerous reports (from�various bodies) about the gravity and seriousness of the threat

3] This “soft assault” on India (via demogrpahics and porous borders) is likely to have serious and severe long-term conseqences that may – in the extreme – lead to balkanisation of parts of India.

4]�The situation has the makings of a crisis that could stall the country’s economic development and fatally expose our strategic�weaknesses

5] It is imperative that this issue be brought centre-stage and in the public consciousness.

Sadly, this is easier said than done.

Our political leaders have become so�indifferent and thick-skinned that nothing can shake them out of their stupor…not 70 lives…not 2 crore illegal immigrants…

So we will continue to suffer from�HuJI-supported terrorist acts, we will continue to dither on stricter border controls and we will continue to use these poor souls as cannon fodder for our election strategies…

Meanwhile, the North-East of course, will continue to burn.

Related Posts:

Getting obsessive about�Arunachal��

Some startling stats from the eastern�front��

Bangladesh and the criminal-�jihadi��nexus�

With I-day round the corner, Al-Qaeda begins its mission in�Kolkata�

and of course the posts relating to attacks in�Jaipur�

UPDATE: Assam Tribune Edit dated 11th February 2014