Alert in West Bengal

A high alert has been sounded in the Indian state of West Bengal and borderguards have been asked to seal the frontier with Bangladesh, officials said.

A Bengal police official said they have received reports from central intelligence that large number of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chatra Shibir activists are trying to flee Bangladesh after being charged with violence there.

"We have been told to keep these trouble-makers out of our territory,” the official said but was not willing to be named. “Our police and border guards have been asked to remain vigilant and the orders are that moment you catch someone like that, hand him back to Bangladesh."

Intelligence reports also indicate that some hardline Islamist radical elements in West Bengal are slipping into Bangladesh to help Jamaat-e-Islami foment trouble to create pressure on the government.

Some Islamist groups have already organised demonstrations in Kolkata against the Bangladesh war crimes trials and submitted memorandum to Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata, Abida Islam, asking her to convey to the government to stop the war crimes trials.

Kolkata and its suburbs have a sizeable population of Urdu-speaking Muslims, some of whom had to leave Bangladesh after 1971 and some hardline elements in the community sympathise strongly with the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh for their role during the 1971 war.

West Bengal police say they are keeping a close watch on 'some sensitive areas' dominated by this community.

Security at the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission has also been strengthened.

When asked about the alert, West Bengal police chief Naparajit Mukherji told bdnews24.com that necessary measures have to be taken "in view of the situation in Bangladesh."

"We are neighbours and so must prepare for spillovers and fallouts," he said.