Bin Laden ballads in West Bengal

Even as mystery surrounds the whereabouts of Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, music audio cassettes, eulogising him have found a ready market in the Muslim majority border districts of West Bengal.

The state's security forces have already seized hundreds of such cassettes while stepping up vigil to unearth its origin and the clandestine network that had been doing a brisk business with these cassettes.

Recently, the state police's intelligence wing launched a drive in the border areas and seized a large number of these cassettes.

A senior state police official confirmed that there are several types of music cassettes that have been produced and released in the border markets. One of the types seized was in the form of - 'kirtan' (a kind of folk ballad) where the life of Osama bin Laden has been described through songs.

Another limited version was said to be in Arabic with Bengali translations. This variety was based on Bin Laden's speech at different points of time before United States launched its offensive against Afghanistan. Yet another variety was in the form of a poetic drama in which a female and a male singer take turns to describe the 'battle' in Afghanistan and shower profuse eulogies on the leader.

Each variety has an attractive title to describe the contents. For instance, the one describing the life and time of Osama Bin Laden is titled 'Muslim Jahane - Laden.'

The one that records his teachings and speeches concerning Islam is titled Osama bin Laden – Invaluable Utterances, and the third that describes the war in Afghanistan has a title called Afghanistan Burning. Each cassette carries a picture of Osama bin Laden on the cover.

The districts in West Bengal where these cassettes have been found or seized are Jalpaiguri, Siliguri, (Darjeeling), North and South Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad.

Having realised that it was not possible to monitor the remote markets in these border districts on a day to day basis, the security agencies have asked the shopkeepers to mount a vigil and inform the police if similar cassettes are found.

The needle of suspicion regarding the clandestine network is directed towards the smuggling cartels that exist on both sides of the boundary between West Bengal and Bangladesh.