Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor, visited Kolkata and held a two-day meeting with intelligence officers in the state capital discussing issues ranging from Pakistani’s spying agency ISI’s growing activities in neighboring Bangladesh and possibility of fugitive Maoist leaders’ presence in West Bengal.
He paid a visit to Kolkata on Saturday and Sunday.
Sources in the central Intelligence Bureau said Doval’s visit was very significant in the backdrop of ISI’s Bangladesh visit on two occasions within one month and security force’s massive crackdown against Maoists in Chhattisgarh.
“Doval’s discussed the arrests of a total of 19 operatives of Bangladesh-based terror outfit Ansar-al-Islam, also known as Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), and Pakistan-linked terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in past three months who have connections with West Bengal and Assam.
The last arrest was made by the Assam police’s Special Task Force (STF) on February 12. A key ABT operative was rounded up from Chennai,” said an IB officer.
Refusing to disclose details of the discussions with Doval, the officer said, “The NSA expressed concern about the ISI’s covert Bangladesh visit twice in the last month, especially the last one when a 10-member ISI team camped in Chittagong for a week this month. Bengal has previously been identified as ISI’s route to India from Bangladesh on multiple occasions. In December, Jammu and Kashmir police arrested a Pakistan-trained terrorist from Canning in South 24 Parganas.”
Doval also emphasised the potential presence of Maoists in Bengal, which was a hotbed for the outlawed outfit 14 years ago. “Though the rebels are lying low in Bengal since CPI(Maoist) politburo member Kishanji’s encounter in 2011, but we have information that there are thousands of sympathisers of the outfit spread across the western part of the state. The NSA directed us to keep a close watch on Bengal’s erstwhile Maoist strongholds where top-level rebel leaders, who are on the run, may have taken refuge after the security force’s assault in Chhattisgarh,” said another IB officer.
Hunga Karma, one of the 31 rebels who were gunned down in Bastar, Chattisgarh, on February 10, had spent three years in Bengal from 2012 to revive the organiation’s activities.
According to IB sources, security forces are on the hunt for top-level fugitive Maoist leaders which include Mallojula Venugopal Rao, also known as Sonu, Thippiri Tirupathi, alias Devji, Nirmala, Madvi Hidma, Katakam Sudarshan, and four others who are part of the outfit's politburo and central committee. Each of them has a bounty of ₹1 crore on their heads.
In Chattisgarh, a total of 81 Maoists were killed by security forces this year and the number is 219 in 2024. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has set a deadline of March, 2026, to wipe out Naxals from India.
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