News Desk :
A special Indian court has convicted who it called eight operatives of the Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terror group for planting IEDs at the Mahabodhi Temple complex in Bodh Gaya of Bihar in 2018, reports the PTI citing an official.
Paigambar Sheikh, Ahmad Ali, Nur Alam Momin, Adil Sheikh, Dilwar Hossain, Abdul Karim, Mustafizur Rahman and Arif Hussain were convicted on Friday under sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Explosive Substance Act, the official of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said.
The case pertains to the planting of three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in and around the premises of the temple, he said, adding, the first IED, detected at gate No 5 of Kalchakra Maidan, exploded while it was being secured.
Two more live IEDs were recovered near Srilankan Monastery and at the stairs of gate No 4 of the temple.
The convicts hatched a conspiracy by way of planting improvised explosive devices at the temple complex during a visit of the Dalai Lama and the governor of Bihar, according to the NIA official.
They contacted each other, travelled together, conspired and procured explosives, fabricated and planted these three IEDs at the temple complex on January 19, 2018.
A charge sheet in the case was filed in September 2018, followed by a supplementary charge sheet in January 2019, the NIA official said. The quantum of sentence against the eight convicts would be pronounced on December 17 by the special court.
Citing terrorist acts, Indian government in late May 2019 had banned the Islamist outfit, 14 years after Bangladesh did the same.
