Guwahati: The communal riots of 2012 in Kokrajhar was the turning point for Assam as it brought the state on the radar of pan-Islamic jihadi elements.
Informing that the arrest of six modules of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen of Bangladesh has also corroborated it, authoritative security sources told this newspaper that documentary evidences in possession of the security agencies have revealed that Assam started figuring in most of discourses of pan-Islamic jihadi forces after communal riots of 2012.
Saying that in most of the discourses of Islamic terror networks, the plight of Muslims in Assam was highlighted, security sources informed that there have been occasions when plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar was also referred with Assam in discourses at various international forums of radical jihadis.
Claiming that some of the NGOs and religious and political leaders who came for relief operations were also instrumental in highlighting it, security sources said that some protest demonstrations against the Assam riots outside the state also helped in publicising the demography of the state.
Security sources clarified that they are yet to find any evidence that indicates the interest of the Al Qaeda in Assam, though they admitted that the Indian subcontinent is on the radar of the Qaeda and Indian security agencies had prior inputs in this regard.
Admitting that the ongoing radicalisation of Rohingya youths facing onslaught in Myanmar was also posing a serious threat to the safety and security of Assam, security sources said that agencies have found evidences of Rohingyas exploring possibility of shelters in the frontier states of the Northeast.
Pointing out that the Rohingyas of Myanmar have already flooded J&K and New Delhi, sources said that Assam may turn out to be a new shelter for them, with several NGOs and jihadi elements extending their moral support to the ongoing training of Rohingyas in the bordering areas of Bangladesh.
They said that six Muslim youths arrested in Assam were the part of the JMB plan to launch a retaliatory attack on Dhaka.
