RAW field office in UP to monitor Nepal border

Lucknow, Jul 31: India's external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) has opened its office in the Uttar Pradesh capital to monitor the activities on the Indo-Nepal border with special stress on the functioning of the madarsas on the bordering area of UP and Bihar.

This is the first time that R& AW opened shop in the largest state of the country. R&AW used to operate earlier through its cadres under the instruction of Delhi office.

Sources said R& AW will intensify its vigil on the border that Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal share with Nepal.

The officers of R&AW, busy preparing the dossiers on the foreign-based Jehadi organizations active in Uttar Pradesh, said on condition of anonymity, a separate R&AW office in Lucknow would enable the organization to take a deeper look at the newly emerging foreign based jehadi modules in the state.

In 2005, the state was under the grip of communal tension after Pak-based jehadis had made an abortive bid to blow up Ram temple at Ayodhya. The Special Task Force (STF) of the state police investigating the case had unearthed the jehadi module run by Jaish -e-Mohammad.

''The new menace is Harkat Ul Jehadi Islami( HUJI) from Bangladesh which was fast spreading tentacles in Uttar Pradesh,'' a senior police officer added.

The director of the organization, PK Hormese Tharakan was present with other senior officers when its office was inaugurated last week in the wake of a series of Pakistan-sponsored terrorist operations in the last year.

Equipped with the state of the art technology, the office of R& AW in Lucknow will be run by one deputy director rank officer.

The inauguration of the RAW office was attended by senior police officers of both Uttar Pradesh state cadre and the central organizations present in the state. UP director general of police Bua Singh was among the guests.

Immediately after the inauguration of the office, Mr Tharakan held a meeting with the officers of Intelligence wings including Intelligence Bureau (IB).

UNI

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