GUWAHATI / AGARTALA, December 23 (TIWN): Islamist terror group Al Qaeda is trying to set up bases in Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram as it has already established links with militant outfits operating in the north east region. Pakistan's ISI and Bangladesh's HUJI (Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami) aggressively financing and coordinating logistics with north east terrorist groups to establish bases and sleeper cells across metro cities. Al-Qaeda already established contacts with Assam-based militant outfits like the anti-talk factions of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) ,National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and Tripura's NLFT. HUJI is an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist group active in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.Earlier in september, the central government sounded a country-wide alert after an al-Qaeda video threatened to carry out campaign in India. However, Tripura's current preparedness to tackle Al-Qaeda or spread of Islamic terrorism is none as Police lacks effective intelligence network in State.In addition to poor intelligence network of police, Tripura has no preparedness, expertise on dealing cyber crime and keeping check on Jihadi propaganda among radical muslim youths in State.

Recent surge in NLFT activity should be treated as alarm bells by an complacent Tripura government. Though the recent kidnapping by the NLFT has been in Mizoram, the Tripura government can ignore the spurt only at Tripura's peril.

Anti-talk faction of the ULFA attacked an army convoy in Sivsagar district, injuring an army man. After the incident, police and security agencies warned that the anit-talk faction might carry out subversive activities across the state in the run up to Durga Puja, scheduled for early next month.

It is to be mentioned here that, NLFT self-styled foreign secretary Utpal Debbarma was out on bail on November 6. Debbarma was arrested from Aizawl way back in 2011 by jawans of the Assam Rifles and SIB sleuths. He was charged with sedition and illegal possession of arms. The release of top-ranking rebel leader has set an alarm bell among the security agencies including Assam Rifles and Subsidiary Intelligence Branch (SIB).
Utpal Debbarma a dropout student from the erstwhile Tripura Engineering College (TEC) joined the NLFT and was soon lifted to the position of ‘foreign secretary’.

The real cause for NLFT or any other Tripura insurgent group unable of taking off big time is because of the zero tolerance of Hasina's government and the pressure exerted on the security forces in our neighbouring country by the political leadership to hit out at the rebels , be they from ethnic militant groups of India's Northeast or local Islamist radicals.  That is why the Islamist radicals are fleeing to West Bengal where they get all the sanctuary and support they need to thrive. Moment this pressure is gone, the NLFT will be able to revive itself again.
But remote regions of Chittagong Hill Tracts like the Northern Sajek ranges (where NLFT bases now are mostly based) are still not accessible and Bangladesh security forces have limited capability of hitting these areas. That explains why the NLFT, specially its Panther regiment, has been able to regroup in this area and operate on the Mizoram-Tripura axis.
They have avoided taking on security forces, lest they face determined counter insurgency action from both sides of the border. They have restricted themselves to rebuilding their finances that lay in tatters.
Tripura managed to crush tribal militancy in the early 2000 by determined police action, trans-border surrogate assaults and superb area domination by the Tripura State Rifles (TSR).
Earlier, Inspector General of BSF Tripura frontier B.N. Sharma said that around 32 militants camps still exist along the Indo-Bangladesh international border. Out of the total 32 militant camps, 21 ultras from Tripura having all the hideouts, mostly belonging to banned outfits National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).   
Tripura also shares 851-km-long border with Bangladesh which constitutes 85 per cent of its total border and out of the 851 km long border with Bangladesh 703 km fencing is already completed and 143 km are still unfenced due to various issues, he mentioned.