Ham radio users detect suspicious signals in Urdu, Arabic along India-Bangladesh border

Kolkata: Amateur Ham Radio operators have picked up suspicious late-night radio signals in coded Bengali, Urdu and Arabic along the India-Bangladesh border in South Bengal over the last two months, raising concerns about possible extremist activities, officials said.

The development comes amidst ongoing unrest in Bangladesh and growing anti-India rhetoric in the neighbouring country. The incident first came to light in December last when Ham radio operators detected unauthorised communications in coded Bengali, Arabic and Urdu from Basirhat and Bongaon in North 24-Parganas, as well as from the Sunderbans in South 24-Parganas.

Alarmed by these transmissions, the operators informed the Ministry of Communications. The matter was subsequently forwarded to the International Monitoring Station (Radio) in Kolkata for tracking. Ham radio operators have also been asked to monitor and report if similar signals are detected again.

“These suspicious radio signals have been picked up between 1 am and 3 am. The transmissions are in coded Bengali (with a Bangladeshi accent), Urdu and Arabic. Sometimes, there are signals in another language that we couldn’t identify. Whenever we asked those communicating to identify themselves, they went silent,” Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of the West Bengal Radio Club, told a news agency.

According to Biswas, the first such signal was detected by a Ham radio operator in Sodepur in North 24-Parganas district in mid-December.

“Initially, we did not attach much importance to it. But then similar signals were detected from Basirhat, Bongaon and later from South 24-Parganas district. Even during the Gangasagar Mela in mid-January, several Ham radio users reported hearing these suspicious signals,” he said.

Asked why these signals seemed suspicious, Biswas explained that their pattern and language usage were unusual.

“The global norm among Ham radio users is that if a third party enters an ongoing communication; they must identify themselves using a radio identification code or radio call sign. But in these cases, whenever we asked for identification, the signals went silent.

The pattern remained the same in all instances,” he said. Ham or amateur radio operators are licenced under the Union Ministry of Communications and are authorised to communicate using specific radio frequencies.

A senior official from the Ministry of Communications confirmed that the matter had been forwarded to the International Monitoring Station (Radio) Kolkata for further examination.