In yet another blast at a bomb making unit located within a Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader’s house, 2 men, Hafizul and Tarik Hussain, brothers of Jabir Hussain, TMC leader of Panchla gram panchayat in Khairasol police station area, were killed while making bombs that went off accidentally. The blast took place in the leader’s house at Ahmedpur village, Birbhum district about 180 from Kolkata.

The impact of the blast was so powerful that it brought down parts of the brick and mortar building, and locals reported that the whole village was shaken. Besides the two dead, at least four to five people who were making the bombs are reported to be injured in the blast.

In Dec 2015, 2 men – Hannan Sheikh and Faizul Sheikh – were killed, while 2 others – Nabiul Sheikh and Nasirul Islam – were seriously injured, while making bombs in Kaliachak, Malda district, in a godown owned by TMC member Liton Sheikh, under the instructions of Trinamool’s Sujapur unit president and his relative Mafizul Sheikh. Mafizul Sheikh was with the CPM earlier and had later joined Trinamool. Incidentally, the same Kaliachak was targeted by Islamist mobs during the recent Malda riots.

In May 2015, a blast at a TMC activist’s ‘bomb unit’ killed 12 in Pingla, West Midnapore district. The blast was so powerful that the house was ripped to shreds and body parts were flung on trees or hurled hundreds of metres away.

In October 2014, an accidental explosion of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) occured in a two- storeyed building owned by a TMC leader, Nurul Hasan Chowdhury, who lived in the building facing that of his tenants, in the Khagragarh locality of Burdwan town.  2 members of the dreaded Jamaat-ul- Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an Al- Qaeda-linked outfit banned in Bangladesh, were killed and 1 was seriously injured.

A detailed investigative report “The Terror Fields Of Bengal” which appeared in the aftermath of the Burdwan blast, is a must read for those who want to understand the depth of the Islamist terror network in West Bengal, which has prospered with the active connivance of the ruling TMC and CM Mamta Banerjee. Some key highlights from this report are:

How deep is the terror network & Muslim radicalization in West Bengal?

• JMB has over the years set up bomb-making units across several districts of West Bengal, including Murshidabad, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda and Burdwan.
• 27-year-old Yusuf Shiekh, the reported kingpin of various terror modules that the JMB runs across West Bengal, set up a madrassa at Simulia village in Burdwan where 30-40 people offered arms training to young women.
• In Simulia village, Muslims account for half the population of 6,000. Hindus don’t dare venture into the ‘Muslim area’ just 100 metres away, and refer to it as “out there”.
• NIA and the state police were ‘surprised’ by the unity in denial among the Muslim villagers, who claimed they knew nothing about the nefarious activities carried out by nearly 40 people in their midst. They remained adamant that the terrorists were ‘do-gooders running an academic institution for young girls’.
• Even women jihadi recruits undergo extensive training in guerilla warfare and torture resistance.

What role does illegal immigration from Bangladesh play?

• Terrorists infiltrate with east into Bharat from Bangladesh. Proliferation of terror modules has spread in all border districts and beyond (Burdwan is not close to the border).
• Very often Bangladeshi citizens first cross over to Bharat, marry a citizen of Bharat, and then acquire their father-in-law’s surname in an effort to “erase their past”.
• Bangladeshi jihadists find a liberal, secular and hospitable environment in West Bengal to hide, survive and prosper.
• Jihadists are advocating Hijra (an important event when the Prophet of Islam migrated from Mecca to Madina to establish the first Islamic state) as a strategy to capture the imagination and radicalize Muslim youth.
• Jihadists are planning a mini caliphate incorporating Bangladesh and neighbouring districts of West Bengal.

What is the role of parties like TMC, CPM, Congress?

• The TMC, which has taken power from the CPM, is following in the former’s footsteps, letting its cadres take the law into their hands and exercise brute force. The situation has only got worse since TMC came to power.
• Goons of Bangladeshi origin have routinely been hired by both the CPM and Congress, and later the TMC, to carry out killings.The identity of the killer gangs, which vanish back to Bangladesh or into immigrant settlements, stays masked.
• According to the 2001 Census, Bharat was then home to more than 3 million people of Bangladeshi origin, a vast number of them in Assam. Some argue that the figure is far higher.
• Illegal migration has drastically altered the politics of Assam. The state saw large-scale riots in 2012 between Bangladeshi-origin residents and indigenous natives.
• The expansion of fundamentalist outfits among Muslims had assured these immigrants local help within Bharat. Central agencies had accused the Popular Front of India (PFI) of sending the bulk SMS threat that led to the exodus of North-Easterners from Bengaluru, Karnataka soon after the Assam violence of 2012.
• CPM had also “meticulously employed” Bangladeshi nationals in country bomb-making units, effectively putting in place an infrastructure for terror activities in the state. And now the TMC has monopolised them to the extent that it is impossible for Mamata Banerjee to act against them. They are her strongest vote bank.

With the deep roots that Islamic terror and political violence have developed in West Bengal, is it rational to expect free & fair elections in the coming Assembly elections? Will Hindus dare to vote freely when they remember incidents like this? What has the Election Commission done to ensure that the intimidation their State Election Commissioner faced during municipal elections just 3 months back won’t be repeated? Hypothetically speaking, how would our ‘civil society’, media, ‘intelligentsia’ and ‘secular’ politicians have reacted if the lawlessness and terror that exists in West Bengal today, had existed in Gujarat 10 years back? A lot of questions, but not many answers – at least none for the hapless Hindus of West Bengal.