The Enemy Within: Ex-cops, NGOs and terror groups' nexus is an old tact with new threats

For years, several officials within the system have worked closely with terror groups posing a threat to the security of the country

New Delhi, July 15: The Bihar police this week announced that it had busted a terror module which had planned not only on spreading terror across the country, but also had plotted the assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The police confirmed the arrest of Md. Jallauddin and Athar Parvez. Jallauddin is a retired sub-inspector of the Jharkhand police, the Bihar police confirmed. The fact that a retired policeman joined a terror group is a worrisome development and puts a question on the kind of information he may have shared while in service, an official OneIndia spoke with said.

Cops joining the terror ranks is not a new phenomenon. We have witnessed multiple such cases in Jammu and Kashmir. Very recently the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cracked down on officials in the Foreigners Division in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for granting licences in lieu of bribes. The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) division of MHA is responsible for granting permission to NGOs under the FCRA to receive funds from abroad.

It is this inside rot in the system that has been threatening internal security to a large extent, the official cited above said. In November last year, a senior prison officer and a school principal were sacked for working with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. Deputy Superintendent of Jails in the union territory, Feroz Ahmad Lone, and government school principal Javid Ahmad Shah were sacked.

During the probe it was found that Lone was working with Riyaz Naikoo, a very dangerous terrorist of the Hizbul Mujahideen. Naikoo was shot dead last year by the security forces.

In September last year, the J&K administration sacked six of its employees for having terror links. Two among these were police constables and were accused of having links with over ground workers of terrorist groups in the union territory.

In the FCRA case, CBI found that transactions to the tune of Rs 2 crore through hawala transactions were found during the raids. Some officers were also caught red handed while accepting bribes.

It was thanks to these officials that foreign funds came in freely. Another official says that several NGOs have been under the scanner for long. In 2020 the government had cracked down on several NGOs. The registration to receive foreign donations for religious purposes were suspended and their bank accounts were frozen, following reports from the Intelligence Bureau which said that these NGOs in several states, especially Jharkhand, were converting locals to Christianity.

As part of the larger conspiracy, the missionaries have been funding the naxalites, leftist thinkers especially in the main-stream English media. Many write ups have appeared in which it is made to look as though Hinduism is nothing but a religion of superstition. Articles blaming Hinduism for all the evils in society have also surfaced several times.