Kolkata: Amateur radio operators in Bengal, who track messages on VHF signals, picked up suspicious conversations in Bengali and Urdu for over a month and forwarded it to the ministry of home affairs. The conversations were coded, leading them to suspect the persons' motive.
The first conversation spotted was in Bengali, with a Bangladeshi accent. "A call sign was sent to the voice to know the identity but the line went silent. But we found the voice on a different frequency, speaking to another person in Urdu," said Ambarish Nag Biswas, founder of West Bengal Radio Club.
Radio operators tracked multiple frequencies at the same time at night. "They used coded words," said Jayanta Baidya, a radio operator. They informed the Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing under the telecommunication department.
Nag Biswas recorded the conversations and handed them to the MHA. "We had similar messages before the Basirhat violence," he said.