'Medicines are coming': This IB intercept points to a rising danger of bio-terror
In the month of January the Intelligence Bureau picked up two intercepts which speaks about sneaking in medicines into India. In the months to come a team of the Intelligence Bureau analysed this alert.
After deciphering this alert it was found that a group known as the Harakat ul-Muhojirinfi Britaniya was planning on bringing in biological and chemical weapons into India. This group specialises in training its cadres in the use of chemical, bacteriological, and biological weapons.
The
Intelligence
Bureau
also
learnt
that
the
group
was
trying
to
smuggle
the
weapons
into
India
through
Bangladesh.
The
two
intercepts
spoke
about
smuggling
medicines
and
on
deciphering
the
same
it
was
found
that
it
was
a
code
word
used
for
biological
and
chemical
weapons.
Intelligence
Bureau
officials
say
that
the
group
did
not
manage
to
go
through
with
its
plan.
It
may
have
been
dropped
as
it
would
not
have
been
feasible.
Terror
groups
have
been
attempting
to
launch
chemical
and
biological
attacks
for
sometime,
the
officer
notes.
The threat
The IB says that there are various groups which are capable of a biological strike. However most of these groups have not used such weapons as yet. For the moment, the terrorist groups are still carring out test runs.
The reason that terrorist groups will be slow to use these weapons as it is their trump card. Experts say that they will conduct many more trial runs before they actually deploy it to fight the enemy.
A couple of instances reported both in Pakistan and Iraq show that biological weapons have been used. Biological agents were used to contaminate the water as a result of which several persons had taken ill. It appears that the terrorist groups tested these agents in very small quantity and hence none lost their lives.
Intelligence agencies say that the target cities for terrorist groups to use biological weapons in India will be Delhi and Mumbai. In Pakistan, there is a chance of the same being used in Khyber Paktunkhwa, Sindh, Islamabad and Karachi.
Intelligence Bureau officials are aware of the capabilities of groups such as the Lashkar and Taliban which use sophisticated weapons. The threat of nuclear and biological weapons being smuggled had started as far back as 1998. IB officials say that routes in Assam and Kashmir have to be monitored at all times since these groups are most likely to bring in such weapons through these routes.
OneIndia News