Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday morning held a closed-door meeting with senior officials of the National Investigation Agency. The meeting was held at a five-star hotel in New Town area of Kolkata where the home minister is staying during his two-day trip to the state. Shah landed in Kolkata at 1am on Saturday morning.
Sources said that Shah discussed the issue of Al Qaeda spreading its network in the state.
"Not only did he talk about Al Qaeda, the home minister asked NIA to investigate all the explosions taking place across Bengal. He fears that such incidents would increase in the state," said a source.
The home minister also discussed the activities of Islamic group Popular Front of India (PFI) in the state.
Assam has witnessed large-scale investments of PFI in the movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Shah also told the NIA officials about PFI activities in West Bengal. The Centre has come to know about links of PFI activists from Kolkata to the protests against the farm laws on the Delhi-Haryana border.
Shah has asked the officials to crack the whip on such groups in West Bengal. He told them that groups such as the PFI might create trouble during elections in West Bengal.
Intense investigation by the CBI into coal smuggling is going on in West Bengal. The CBI is also targeting cow smuggling across the border and in fact has arrested several senior BSF officers in this regard. With this, Shah's thrust on PFI activities and investigations into explosions is going to be significant.
Meanwhile, in Kolkata, BJP workers allegedly tore off posters and big cut-outs of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and MP Abhishek Banerjee. TMC supporters on Saturday held a small protest rally in north Kolkata.
What came out as significant is that the state police has created full-proof security cover across Kolkata unlike what happened during visit of BJP chief J.P. Nadda in West Bengal last week.
On Friday, MHA officials, through videoconference, had warned the chief secretary and DGP of West Bengal against any such lapses.
Chief Secretary Alapan Bandhopadhya assured Union Home Secretary A.K. Bhalla that everything would be taken care of.
