THE bomb blast in Burdwan, West Bengal which has put Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on tenterhooks appears to have sent its ripples to Assam. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has said that he was one of the targets of the Jihadis who were behind the Burdwan blast. These conspirators from Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia are said to be operating in Assam. Gogoi is also the Home Minister and accountable for his government’s masterly inactivity in rooting out the menace. He has said that the state secretariat at Guwahati and the Kamakhya temple are targets of Islamic terrorists. The Chief Minister has Z-plus security and is guarded by National Security Council. It is of course belated action. Gogoi has disclosed that his government has decided to hand over Jihadi-related cases to be National Investigation Agency (NIA) as the cases had their roots in foreign Islamic countries, especially Bangladesh next door. The state police have no mandate to investigate sources of terror outside the country. Gogoi has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and alerted him about the growing presence of Jihadis in his state.
It is good that Gogoi has made an approach to the Prime Minister. Political differences between the Centre and the state government have not stood in the way as in the early stages of the crisis in West Bengal. It is a mystery why Jihadi violence has suddenly erupted in the two states. No doubt the origins of the crisis lie in the indulgence to the minority community and failure to act against illegal immigration of Muslims into Assam and West Bengal across the porous border. The UPA government had shelved the issue for years. In West Bengal, Modi had raised an outcry in Trinamul circles by attacking illegal immigration into the state. Now both Assam and West Bengal are reeling under the baneful impact. It is hoped that the Centre and the NIA will be on their toes to eradicate Jihadi presence menacing national security.
