Bangladesh infiltrators: Bengal will be eaten up by the Frankenstein it created

The issue of infiltration from Bangladesh is a huge matter of concern and with the kind of fanaticism that is growing there the day is not too far when there will be a major spill over in India. [Issue of Bangladeshi infiltration: Digging the reality out of the myth]

It is very hard to put a number to the Bangladeshis who infiltrate into India. While many have come in search of food and jobs, there is a flip side to this tale and that is it is creating a dirty dark world of crime. [Increase in infiltration: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee blames Centre]

Saradha, Burdwan and now the nun rape case. Each one of these major crimes have a Bangladesh link to it and it is the infiltration and the deep rooted connections that some politicians from West Bengal have which led to the crime syndicate in Bangladesh operating with ease in India.

Saroj Kumar Rath, assistant professor at the University of Delhi and author of Fragile Frontiers: The Secret History of Mumbai Terror Attacks says that the situation can well go beyond control. The past few years have witnessed the death of over 100 civilians including Bangladeshi American blogger Avijit Roy.

Saroj Rath told Oneindia the Bangladesh problem and how the situation could well go out of control and turn from bad to worse if India does not act quickly:

Growing extremism in Bangladesh:

All the recent incidents in which prominent people and civilians have died are due to political and terrorism related violence. Bangladesh is under the grip of an over-reactionary political class and a host of relentless extremist groups.

We have witnessed street battles between the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League and Khalida Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

This situation has proved to be a blessing for the extremists who have taken advantage of it. While the Hasina government has brought the extremists to book and managed to establish peace, a lot has changed once she set up the tribunal to try the Jamaat-e-Islami leaders for their role in the 1971 genocide.

The Jamaat went on to bond further with Khaleda Zia. This has led to problems and with the street power that the Jamaat has it has only made matters worse in Bangladesh.

These fights have also led to the rise of extremism and it is very evident that groups such as the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami Bangladesh and Ansarullah Bangla Team are teaming up.

Spillover into India:

The teaming of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami Bangladesh and Ansarullah Bangla Team have its effects in India. These are extremely strong groups and are lending support to the United Liberation Front of Assom, National Front of Bodoland and National Socialist Council of Nagaland.

International terrorist groups are also taking advantage of this and forces such as the Al-Qaeda, the ISIS or the Al-Khorasan, Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Hizb-ut-Tahrir are joining the fray thus making it an extremely lethal combination, Saroj Rath points out.

It is very obvious that the target is India. The infiltrations are only aiding them to get the numbers and when they make their foray fully into India, they would already have the numbers in the form of the high number of infiltrators already present here.

5.2 million Bangladeshis in India:

The Home Ministry document gives out a staggering figure. As per the report of the Home Ministry there are 5.2 million Bangladeshis illegally staying in India. In West Bengal alone there are 3.2 million.

Rath points out that West Bengal has a 25.2 per cent Muslim population. Lured by some fanatics some of these people lean towards the extremists in Bangladesh and hence help further their cause in India.

Saroj Rath says that Bengali politicians, especially from the ruling Trinamool Congress Party and also the Communist Party of India (Marxist) remain convinced that a soft approach on Bangladeshi extremists and Indian supporters attracts the Muslim vote in the province and beyond.

Three Trinamool Congress party leaders Haji Nurul Islam, a former parliamentarian; Ahmed Hasan Imran, member of parliament; and Giyasuddin Mollah, a provincial minister - are accused of supporting local and Bangladeshi militants.

A confidential note issued in the year 2013 by West Bengal's 24 Parganas District Superintendent of Police accused Ahmed Hasan Imran, a founding member of the banned Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), of involvement in spurring communal violence in the state and funding Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh.

West Bengal is nursing a monster:

According to Rath, by giving in to extremists in exchange for unverifiable short-term electoral gains, the provincial government of West Bengal is nursing a monster that could soon eat its own creator. Similar policies have failed in other parts of the world, including Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The government must ensure that extremists don't take advantage of the government and its soft policy.

It is essential to identify a viable solution to raging illegal Bangladeshi migration, work hard to end a porous border by increasing Indian flexibility on exchanges of enclaves, and establish a taskforce to monitor the spillover of threats emanating from Bangladesh, Saroj Rath further states.