Urdu, Arabic radio signals near Indo-Bangla border worry MHA
The Ministry of Home Affairs is investigating suspicious coded radio signals in Urdu, Arabic, and Bengali intercepted along the Indo-Bangladesh border. The transmissions, detected by ham radio operators, have sparked security concerns amid strained diplomatic ties with Bangladesh and Pakistan’s ISI’s recent visits to Dhaka.
News Arena Network - Kolkata - UPDATED: February 24, 2025, 02:15 PM - 2 min read
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The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has come across suspicious pre-dawn radio signals and transmissions in coded Urdu, Arabic, and Bengali along the India-Bangladesh border in south Bengal, intercepted recently by amateur ham radio operators.
Sources in the MHA stated that coded communication in languages unfamiliar to Bangladeshi citizens has raised concerns regarding potential extremist activities in the neighbouring country.
"The suspicious transmission was first detected in December when ham radio operators noticed unauthorised communication from Basirhat and Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district and in the Sundarbans. Alarmed by these signals, the operators reported the matter to the Ministry of Communication, which then forwarded the issue to us. We alerted the Border Security Force’s (BSF) intelligence wing and the International Monitoring Station (Radio) in Kolkata. We are actively monitoring the situation," said an MHA official.
Ham or amateur radio operators are licensed by the Union Ministry of Communication and permitted to communicate on designated radio frequencies.
The locations where the radio signals were received by the BSF.
"The suspicious radio signals were detected between 1 am and 3 am. The transmissions were in coded Urdu, Arabic, and Bengali with a Bangladeshi accent. They went silent whenever we asked the persons communicating to identify themselves and provide their radio identification code or radio call sign. The pattern remained the same in all cases," said Ambarish Nag Biswas, the secretary of the West Bengal Radio Club.
The global norm among ham radio users is that if a third party enters an ongoing communication frequency, they must identify themselves using a radio identification code.
Sleuths from central intelligence agencies have met Biswas and collected details from him.
"Similar signals were detected in the Sundarbans region during Gangasagar Mela in mid-January. Biswas shared his latest findings with his superiors in January. We approached him to obtain details of the coded signals," said the MHA official.
Sources in the MHA indicated that the development is a serious concern, particularly given India's strained diplomatic ties with Bangladesh and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) visiting Bangladesh twice within a month.
"Several fundamentalist groups are active in Bangladesh and have already taken the front seat in the neighbouring country’s affairs. Against this backdrop, the detection of suspicious coded transmissions is a serious concern for us," said the official.
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