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Behind the north Bengal blast

Monday's deadly explosion that killed seven people on a passenger train at Belakoba in the northern region of West Bengal bears the stamp of northeastern insurgency. If preliminary reports that RDX was used are confirmed, the terrorist attack would raise fresh questions about external linkages. The suspect, the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, acting in league with the United Liberation Front of Asom, has been trying to foment trouble in north Bengal. Aside from fanning chauvinist sentiment, the KLO has been trying to exploit a feeling widespread in the region of being sidelined in the development process. The Left Front Government took the initiative to form a development council for north Bengal and sought to address problems such as high unemployment among the youth. It succeeded in weaning away a number of KLO cadres from the path of violence and rehabilitating them. Significantly weakened but with help from across the border, the extremist organisation harps again on a State of Kamtapur, to be carved out of West Bengal and Assam. After it was flushed out — in the company of ULFA— from base camps in Bhutan in 2003, the KLO has tried to regroup. Its hand has been seen behind a series of incidents of abduction, kidnapping, and extortion in recent times. Reported efforts by both ULFA and the KLO to set up camps in Bhutan again are a matter for concern.

What is clear is that Bangladesh has provided sanctuary to the KLO leaders, as it has to the ULFA lynchpins. Recent intelligence suggests that recruits to both extremist outfits are being trained in camps set up in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. India needs to make a fresh, hard-headed assessment of what needs to be done about this, assuming the intelligence reports are correct. A regime change in Dhaka, which is virtually guaranteed provided free and fair elections can be held, will help India's cause. But independent of this, the hands of the West Bengal Government should be strengthened to enable it to ensure that the violence and disaffection in the northeast does not spill over to north Bengal. Working out new systems and more effective drills to prevent terrorist attacks on trains has become a high priority for the Railways. Enhancing the use of sniffer dog squads to detect explosive devices, and strengthening security surveillance in trains and railway stations in a methodical way are measures that suggest themselves. It will also be useful to study what European countries have done in recent times to protect passengers and trains from the threat of terrorist bomb attacks.

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