BJP’s Harsh Vardhan Shringla backs UN report on Red Fort blast, highlights Bangladesh border vulnerability
New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Thursday backed a report of the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team which has declared the Red Fort suicide car bombing as the work of Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), while flagging concern that India’s porous border with Bangladesh could lead to spread of terrorism in the country.
The report by the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team on terrorism to the Security Council said that the Red Fort blast that killed 11 people last November “was officially attributed to AQIS”. Moreover, It warned that AQIS is emerging as a decentralised terrorist organisation from a disparate group.
Speaking to IANS, Shringla said: “I think if they have said that AQIS is trying to establish links in India, including with the people who are responsible for the blast at the Red Fort, then of course, we have to take it with a certain level of seriousness and we have to obviously try and ensure that activities of these terrorist organizations are not allowed in our country.”
The former IFS officer, who has served as India’s Ambassador to the US and Foreign Secretary, noted that the UN Security Council has a “very comprehensive team of experts”.
“These are people who are specialists in counter-terrorism, who are specialists in dealing with terrorist organisations, and so they do a lot of research, they do a lot of investigation on these issues,” he added.
Shringla, who also has been a former envoy to Bangladesh, blamed the country’s former Chief Adviser Mohammed Yunus for rising instances of terrorism in the country.
His reaction came as the United Nations report said: “There was some concern about AQIS trying to exploit Bangladesh to establish cells there.”
“Bangladesh has now become a place where a lot of extremists and terrorists have become rampant because the previous government of Mohammed Yunus released a lot of wanted terrorists and had also created an atmosphere which is conducive for such terrorists to take root in that country,” Shringla said.
Asserting that the Jamaat-e-Islami still has “considerable influence” in Bangladesh, the former envoy cautioned: “Because of the porous borders, these people can enter India, so we have to be very careful and vigilant that our security and integrity is not compromised…and we have to also work with the Bangladesh authorities because it is not in their interest also to have terrorists operating in their territory.”
–IANS
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