In a shocking revelation six Afghan nationals who were recently detained in Delhi were issued credentials including birth and death certificates from the civic authorities of Malbazar Municipality run by the Trinamool Congress, sources said.
The reports come at a time when the central intelligence agencies have alerted the Home Department about increased activities of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) two radical Islamist terrorist organisations working from Bangladesh but having tentacles in this side of the border too.
The Central Bureau of Investigation which has been investigation the Afghan national case has reportedly asked the Malbazar municipality in Jalpaiguri district of North Bengal to furnish related documents based on which the six Afghan nationals were issued birth certificates so as to enable them acquire Aadhar and Voter Identity cards.
The Malbazar municipalities have received two such letters from the CBI, the latest one being received as late as on December 5, sources in Jalpaiguri said. Reports also did the rounds that at least 15 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan have acquired similar credentials from various municipal authorities.
A senior district Trinamool Congress leader and a top functionary of the civic body said that he had no information regarding the issuance of such certificates to any foreign nationals and said inquiries had been ordered and actions would be taken if anyone would be found guilty of misconduct.
"I was not coming to office for several days and hence had not much information about such developments … however considering these as routine affair … I have given instructions to the department concerned to find out the veracity of the reports of fake certificates being provided to any foreign national … if so strong action will be taken," the TMC leader said.
Another senior functionary of the TMC responsible for handling the municipal body said that he too was not aware of such incidents having taken place assuring strong action would be taken "if anyone is found guilty." He also said that "first of all it has to ascertained whether any such birth or death certificate was issued by the municipality because there may be rackets providing fake certificates."
Meanwhile, in a parallel development the Home Department has been alerted by the central agencies about increased activities of Huji and JMB along the India-Bangladesh border.
While Huji was set up in 1992 as an extended organization of Bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF), JMB was established as a terror group working in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, UK and Australia. Believed to have been nurturing more than 10,000 terrorists the banned organisation was founded by Abdur Rahman in April 1998 in Dhaka's Palampur area and earned notoriety by exploding bombs in 2001 and again detonating detonated 500 small bombs at 300 locations throughout Bangladesh.
Both Huji and JMB which have been working along the India-Bangladesh borders, with diminished capabilities during the Sk Hasina Government have suddenly come alive during the present regime.
According to sources the two militant organizations --- one of which was responsible for the October 2 Khagragarh blast in Birbhum district killing two terrorists --- had recently joined hands and were working in close coordination.
"It has been noticed that these organizations which had lost much of their teeth during the Sheikh Hasina regime have suddenly woken up in the past several months and have activated their sleeper cells along the border districts of Malda, Murshidabad and Birbhum," sources said adding the activation of the sleeper cells come in the wake of release of some 250 dreaded terrorists from Bangladesh jails by the present interim Government of Md Yunus.
