Thursday, March 14, 2013

RAW, cut the crap


I just read the most absurd piece of news in bdnews24. The report said that a "Times of India Report, quoting an unnamed official, said that some members of the Islami Chhatra Shibir (Islamic Chhatra Sangh, Bangladesh) had masterminded the Sabarmati jailbreak attempt. The report said that the 2008 serial blast case accused, who had dug a 200-foot tunnel in the Sabarmati Central jail, are all members of the Indian Mujahideen and had plans to regroup in Bangladesh."

The report seems to be an indirect reproduction of report by the South Asia Terrorism Portal, where it says:

Further, The Times of India quoted an unidentified Crime Branch official as saying, "Some members of Islami Chhatra Sangh [ICS], Bangladesh, had masterminded the Sabarmati jailbreak attempt. They were the ones who were pulling strings from across the border. This student organization is linked to a prominent Islamic organization of Bangladesh. The undertrials were planning to cross over into Bangladesh, undergo some more training, regroup and then return to India for more terror strikes."  

After reading this, consider the self styled description of SATP on its website,

"The South Asia Terrorism Portal is a project conceived, executed and maintained by the Institute for Conflict Management, an autonomous, non-governmental, non-profit society set up in 1997, based in New Delhi, India.The Institute is committed to the task of evaluating terrorist and violent movements which threaten the fabric of modern states in South Asia and recommend solutions."

Checking the report of the Times of India, I could NOT find any report associating Shibir with the event through my search results. The news report by the Times of India over the incident does not refer to Shibir and can be viewed here

So, was the association of Shibir with the incident 'cooked' up the SATP? My analysis is that it could have done this probably because after all, SATP has nothing to lose in terms of respect and everything to win in terms of misinformation and popularity.

I condemn such baseless fabrications associating Bangladesh Islami Chatro Shibir, arguably the biggest student organization in Bangladesh with masterminding the Sabarmati jailbreak attempt

Or, it could just have been another targeted misinformation campaign by the Indian intelligence agency RAW in order to destabilize Bangladesh further. Given the history of the agency in interfering in the internal politics of Bangladesh, one could readily conclude that the agency would be the most benefited by all this chaos.

All I have to say is, R.A.W, cut the crap, will you?




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