The anti-talk faction of separatist outfit Ulfa has threatened to blow up Bangladesh’s largest gas transmission pipeline, prompting authorities to order an intensified security vigil, a media report s
The anti-talk faction of separatist outfit Ulfa has threatened to blow up Bangladesh’s largest gas transmission pipeline, prompting authorities to order an intensified security vigil, a media report said Wednesday citing an Indian intelligence tip-off.
The Paresh Barua-led faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) recently issued the threat to blow up the transmission line of the Bibiyana gas field, which supplies 45 per cent of the gas, the mass circulation Samakal newspaper in a lead story, basing it on information given by Indian intelligence agencies.
The article said Indian intelligence agencies recently unearthed the plot tapping a telephone conversation of Barua with an Ulfa commander when he asked him to blow up the pipeline in Bangladesh.
The 119 kilometre-long Bibiyana pipeline is Bangladesh’s largest transmission line that supplies gas to the national grid from the Bibiyana gas field in northeastern Habiganj, bordering Assam to central Dhunat sub-district, operated by US oil giant Chevron.
Officials of state-run Petrobangla, which contracts out the gas plants to foreign and local oil companies, said they received the information last week and took up the issue with concerned government authorities and cautioned Chevron.
“We have sought necessary government steps for the security of the gas line and cautioned Chevron to enforce an extra vigil on the Bibiyana’s production and transmission systems,” Petrobangla director M. Kamaruzzaman said. He said Petrobangla and Chevron already held a meeting with the officials of the home ministry and security agencies concerned to ensure adequate security for the plant and the transmission line.
A home ministry official said the law enforcement and security agencies were asked to take necessary steps in view of the reported threat, enhancing their vigil as the outfit has record of carrying out sabotages on Indian gas pipelines.
