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Vigil stepped up on West Bengal border

Kolkata: Vigil along West Bengal’s border with Bangladesh has been intensified in the wake of Saturday’s blasts in Hyderabad, which according to the Andhra Pradesh government, might have had Bangladesh as well as Pakistan connections.

Activists of different militant outfits with bases in Bangladesh have tried to sneak into India through this border. This year alone, 12 persons suspected to belong to terrorist groups have been apprehended by personnel of the Border Security Force in the south Bengal frontier segment of the border, a senior BSF official told The Hindu on Monday.

The south Bengal frontier is a preferred stretch of the State’s border with Bangladesh for militants wanting to sneak into the country as the recent arrests indicate. Nearly half the stretch — 620 km out of 1,150 km — is without fencing, much of it is porous and large sections are riverine making patrolling a challenging task, the official added.

A high alert has been sounded across the entire State following the twin blasts in Hyderabad. Security in the vicinity of vital installations, at major railway stations and in and around theatres and shopping malls has been tightened.

The most recent arrest of a militant entering the State from Bangladesh in through the south Bengal frontier was made three days before the twin blasts in Hyderabad. Three days before the Hyderabad blasts, a militant who entered the State from Bangladesh through the south Bengal frontier, was arrested. He was suspected to be an operative of the Hizbul Mujahideen and was reportedly trained in Pakistan.

The arrest of at least three suspected Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI) activists from the city and its surrounding districts in June had led the State’s police to suspect that the militant outfit has a wide network in West Bengal through which it inducts fresh recruits as well as smuggles in explosives from across the border.

The HuJI is among those outfits suspected to be behind the Hyderabad blasts. It is also believed that operatives of the outfit are being trained in militancy and subversive activities in Bangladesh from where they sneak into India.

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