Bihar (Islamist/Other Conflicts): Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2012

Zee News reports that a red alert was sounded in Kishanganj District on January 10 after intelligence reports suggested that eight Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists had sneaked in there from across the porous Indo-Nepal border, official sources said on January 10. The sources told agency that sleuths of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) have already visited the District and held a 'secret' meeting with Kishanganj Superintendent of Police (SP) Ranjit Kumar Mishra in this regard. Apart from SSB personnel, District Armed Police personnel too were maintaining strict vigil on the porous border and people moving into the district from Nepal were being thoroughly frisked, the SP said. All the important trains were being escorted with heavy security personnel as personnel of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) were deployed in railway stations in the District. Vigil was also being kept on the movement of trains in other Districts of the Seemanchal belt: Purnia, Araria, and Katihar, sources said. Hindustan Times adds that railway stations along the Bihar-Nepal border have been put on alert after intelligence reports that a group of terrorists have sneaked into the State and could pose a threat to railway facilities in the area. According to intelligence agencies, the terrorists could attack stations near the border like Raxaul, Sugauli, Adapur, Sikta, Narkatiaganj, Betiah and Motihari. RPF's chief security commissioner (Samastipur) S N Arya said that following the threat reports received from the intelligence departments of the State and Central Governments, all railway stations along the Bihar-Nepal border have been put on maximum alert. According to reports, he said that a Pakistani terrorist was arrested in Kathmandu in Nepal last week. To seek his release, a group of seven to eight Afghani terrorists sneaked into the District from across the Nepal border, posing major threat to Railway Stations and trains besides other vital installation along the border, Arya said. Read less...

Investigators probing the Indian Mujahideen (IM) Bihar module, part of which was busted by the special team of Delhi Police in 2011, has found that the chief of IM operations in India, Yasin, had been making frequent trips to several areas of Bihar towards the beginning of this decade for recruitment to the terror cause, reports Times of India. Yasin, popularly known as Doctor Imran across the three Bihar districts of Samastipur, Darbhanga and Madhubani, had a lot of acquaintances whom he invited over to Delhi. Yasin merely re-established contact with those who came to Delhi in search of jobs. "We believe that he was in need of men, who were equally motivated and also in want of money. Thus, he chose his men very carefully,'' added the source. This, he claimed, also showed that Yasin could have already kept other modules ready. "He is one leader who did not let the left hand know what the right hand was up to,'' an officer said. Sources have also confirmed that at least two members of the present module were present near L-11, Batla House, the encounter site on September 13, 2008, though till then they had no knowledge of the exact role played by the Azamgarh module. "We believe that these men were not part of any bombings prior to 2010, but we have evidence which suggest that they assembled as early as December 2008 and decided to take forward the IM agenda,'' said a source. Earlier, investigators had believed that the Bihar module had only become active after the Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) module, operating under Atif Ameen, was busted in the Batla House encounter in September 2008. Read less...