Thursday, 21 November 2013

IB chief warns against Indian Mujahideen terror threat

NEW DELHI: Terror challenge from Indian Mujahideen remains undiminished despite the arrest of its top leader Yasin Bhatkal and his aide Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi in August this year, Intelligence Bureau chief Asif Ibrahim warned on Thursday.

"Though a sizeable component of IM was home-grown, its mentors were very much based in Pakistan," the IB chief said addressing a conference of state DGPs/IGPs here.


Ibrahim said Patna serial blasts had demonstrated that IM continued to be a major threat despite the success of intelligence agencies in arresting Bhatkal and other key operatives.


"Together with Lashker e Taiba (LeT), IM has enlarged its capabilities and shown that it can carry out acts of terror at short notice," he noted.


The top sleuth stressed that all leads emerging from investigations into cases involving IM would need to be rigorously pursued to neutralize the entire network of the outfit.


The three-day meet of state police chiefs is being organized by the IB.


Ibrahim also raised concern over IM's efforts to connect with terror outfits from other parts of the world.


Though he did not elaborate, the reference was purportedly to IM espousing the cause of Rohingya Muslims by attacking the Buddhist shrine at Bodh Gaya in July to avenge the alleged "atrocities" on them in neighbouring Myanmar.


Referring to the continuing terror threat from Pakistan, Ibrahim said that the evidence gathered from across the border showed that the neighbour continued to sponsor terror groups active in India.


He said the terror infrastructure across the western border was intact and posed a grave security threat.


According to Ibrahim, Pakistani elements continued to push large number of terrorists into the state of Jammu & Kashmir to project the state as a disturbed area.


However, he added that the border forces were vigilant and had foiled numerous infiltration attempts over the year.


Ibrahim said the incidence of Left-wing extremism was on the decline, with Maharashtra and Odisha showing significant fall in violence levels. He reported reversals for the CPI(Maoist), decline in its activities and erosion in leadership. He said the security forces were trying to penetrate hitherto inaccessible areas, facilitating access to development activities.


At the same time, he warned that notwithstanding the decline in levels of Naxal violence, the armed capabilities of the CPI(Maoist) remained intact.


He quoted from the documents and reports from meetings of the outfit's central committee to warn about their plans to raise extremist activities in the coming days.


The IB chief described the situation in the northeast as better, but warned that though insurgency levels were under control, some ethnic and communal issues had raised their head in states like Assam. He stressed the need to crack down on extortion and arms trafficking in the northeast.


Reviewing the communal situation, Ibrahim said the recent riots in Muzaffarnagar had exposed the increasing misuse of social media to create tension between communities.


"The circulation of provocative videos turned out to be one of the main factors behind communal violence," he said while also expressing concern at riots breaking out from hitherto peaceful rural areas. "The experience has shown that the initial incidents could have been contained by prompt action by the local police," he told the DGP meet, where the Uttar Pradesh police chief was also present.






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