New Delhi:After Kashmir, the next target of Al Qaeda is Assam as according to the latest intelligence report compiled by India's intelligence agencies, Al Qaeda in the India Sub-Continent (AQIS), Al Qaeda's newest regional branch, has already come to an understanding with Bangladesh based Islamic terror outfit Jamat ul Mujahedeen to carry out terror activities in India.
"AQIS' strategy behind this tactical understanding is that the organisation want to utilise Assam as their base point to carry out subversive activities in Eastern India," a senior intelligence official told ETV Bharat in New Delhi on Monday. What has further aggravated the situation is the fact that the terror outfits with their sleeper cells and sympathisers present in some pockets of the northeast have already started a massive recruitment drive in selected belts in Assam and even Tripura.
"Due to their close proximity to the Bangladesh border, both Assam and Tripura have become soft targets for Islamist terror outfits," the official said. On a few earlier occasions, security agencies in Assam apprehended Jamat ul Mujahedeen activists and members of other terror groups. "There are some pockets in Assam like Barpeta, Dhubri, Goalpara etc where the terrorist organizations find it easy to lure the gullible youth," the official said.
The terror organisations, according to the intelligence official, have been utilising some of the incidents that took place in both the states in the recent past to radicalise youths. It may be mentioned here that an eviction drive that took place in Assam's Dareang district in September last year raised a massive controversy with minority organisations accusing the BJP led Assam government of targeting a "selected community."