REHMAN ARREST: IS ‘CUTTACK’ MODULE IN OFFING?

Cuttack-17/12-With the lethal Azamgarh, Pune, Darbhanga and Ranchi modules being neutralised,  are the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and Al-Qaeda have gone for seeding the ‘Cuttack’ module to carry out its deadliest agenda elsewhere in the country?

The answer is probably so with the arrest of radical cleric Abdul Rehman ‘Kataki’ from Jagatpur in Cuttack and also if the history of umpteen terror modules that sprouted up in India in late 90s and 2000s are any indication.

According to NIA sources, IM had a link with Al-Qaeda and have plans to operate parallel terror modules in India, other than IM modules, to keep the terror heat on country’s business and economic centres. The terror modules are akin to ‘eye’ of lethal cyclones - where calm reins in but it rains disaster outside the ‘eye’ area. Earlier, IM module based at non-descript places like Azamgarh rained terror at faraway places like Maharashtra and Karnataka. And, when the module was neutralised they were ready with Darbhanga and Ranchi launch pad.

Since all the major terror modules were being neutralised now, and even with the Burdwan module now under the scanner of NIA and IB, seeding of ‘Cuttack’ module looks to be a certain possibility, observed a senior NIA official. He further added that the arrest of suspected terror operative ‘Kataki’ augurs a good omen for Odisha as when Darbhanga module despite on IB radar for long was allowed to drift, the module created more safe hide-outs like Madhubani and Purnia in Bihar and was well-entrenched to calibrate terror attacks. The sequence of terror-related incidents in Odisha since last year could be a pointer towards this, he remarked.

As per the security experts, terror module needs a climate to evolve akin to that of cyclones. And, Odisha has that all - illegal immigrants, vote-bank politics, weak police intelligence operatives, sharing borders with West Bengal and access to easy money transfer channels out of any surveillance purview, which was evidenced by the proliferation of Ponzi firms in Odisha akin to that of WB and Assam. Moreover, way back in 2008, the fact was well known when the 28th

Indo-Bangladesh Border meeting report specifically mentioned HuJi and JuM militants sneaking into West Bengal and Odisha and being able to live as ‘sleeper cells’ among the immigrants. And, when the Religion Census 2011 was released recently, coincidentally some districts in Odisha did show up an unprecedented rise in Muslim population.

Interestingly, prior to the surfacing of Burdwan module, the West Bengal - Bangladesh border area saw an unprecedented spurt in madrassas and recently NIA found evidence that some of the new madarssas were engaged in terror training.

However, there is no authentic information regarding the new madarssas with the State home Department here. Significantly, despite Kataki’s suspected activities and his elder brother’s alleged involvement in terror attack on American Centre in Kolkata in 2002, sources confirmed that he was never under police surveillance here - which security experts consider a major security breach.