Porous border serious threat to Assam security

R Dutta Choudhury

GUWAHATI, April 27 – Porous international border with Bangladesh is posing a serious security threat to Assam and only recently, police and security agencies came across information that a group of jehadi elements managed to cross over to India from the neighbouring country. Highly placed security sources told The Assam Tribune that according to information available, a trained group of jehadi elements crossed over to Assam through the international border in Dhubri district just before the elections in an attempt to establish network in the State. Sources said that the police and security forces came to know about the entry of the jehadi group but failed to trace them and no one now knows where the group is hiding.

Sources pointed out that Dhubri district has hundreds of registered chars, majority of which are located near the international border and the chars are still out of the security radar. No one knows for sure if any jehadi elements managed to establish their bases in some of the chars located along the international border as there is very little presence of police or security personnel in those areas. Only recently, the Government notified two police stations in the chars in an attempt to improve security presence, but the Government action has not improved matters. Sources admitted that only a handful of police personnel are manning the newly created police stations and adequate number of police personnel have not been posted there to ensure that the police stations function as full-fledged ones. Moreover, necessary infrastructure facilities are yet to be provided to the newly created police stations and those even do not have boats to carry out patrolling. Whenever any crime is reported from any char, the police have to hire boats to move to the scene of the crime and under the circumstances, it is not possible for the police to keep a close watch on all the chars.

Of course, the Border Security Force (BSF) has camps in some of the chars located along the international border, but that is not adequate to deal with the situation. Sources said that Dhubri district has more than 47 kilometres riverine international border with Bangladesh and that is also a cause of concern. The BSF has a separate river wing equipped with speed boats for patrolling the international riverine border, but security sources admitted that there is need for improving vigil along the riverine border. The problem becomes more complicated during the dry season when the water level in the Brahmaputra river comes down making it easy for anyone to cross over to India and the speed boats of the BSF also cannot be utilized in shallow water. Sources said that the Government must contemplate putting up of some physical barriers along the riverine international border to deal with the situation.

Sources revealed that the possibility of jehadi elements using the porous border frequently cannot be ruled out. However, sources said that militants belonging to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) normally do not cross over from Bangladesh to India through Dhubri and they normally prefer to cross over through Meghalaya. However, from time to time, gangs of dacoits cross over through the border in Dhubri, sources admitted.