Sagar Biswas :A team of National Investigation Agency [NIA] of India, headed by its Director General Sharad Kumar, met top security officials of Bangladesh on Monday to discuss the network of Jama’atul Mujahedin Bangladesh [JMB] following the Oct 2 blast in West Bengal’s Burdwan town.A six-member high-powered committee led by Additional Secretary [Political] of Home Ministry Dr Kamaluddin Ahamed has been formed to discuss the militancy issue elaborately with the Indian intelligence officials. The committee will keep close touch with NIA agents, official sources said.The NIA team in the meeting, held at the Ministry of Home Affairs, did not provide any solid data or information to Bangladesh authorities regarding the involvement of JMB operatives in Burdwan blast.Besides, the reported JMB plan to assassinate two Bangladeshi top leaders was also not discussed in the meeting. However, they provided a list of some militants which is under scrutiny of Bangladesh security experts. After meeting with the Home Ministry officials, the NIA members held separate meetings with the law enforcing and intelligence agencies, the sources added.Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmud Khandaker, DG of Border Guard Bangladesh [BGB] Major General Aziz, DG of RAB Mokhlesur Rahman, Director General of National Security Intelligence [NSI] Shamsul Hoque, DG of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence [DGFI] Major General Akbar Hossain, Additional IGP of Special Branch [SB] Javed Patwary, Additional IGP of Criminal Investigation Department [CID], Joint Commissioner of Detective and Criminal Intelligence Division Monirul Islam, among others, took part. The NIA officials came to Dhaka separately in two groups. Two officials arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by an Air India flight at 10:35am yesterday. Another two including NIA Deputy Director General Sajib Farid reached here a few hours earlier, according to immigration officials.Officials of the High Commission of India said that the team will hold meetings with relevant authorities [of Bangladesh] as part of ongoing bilateral security cooperation between India and Bangladesh.”Indian investigators suspect that there are militant networks in both countries. They did not specify the numbers of militants in today’s meeting. But they urged Bangladesh to hunt them down. We are not ruling out their claim,” Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs Md Mozammel Hoque Khan said after the meeting.The Secretary said, “The two countries, Bangladesh and India, are determined that the soils will not be allowed to the militant outfits. On 2 October 2014 an explosion occurred in a house in the Khagragarh locality of Burdwan. Two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists, Shakil Ahmed and Sobhan Mondal, were killed and a third Abdul Hakim was injured. The police seized 55 Improvised Explosive Devices [IEDs], RDX, wrist watch dials, SIM cards, Taliban training videos, fake elector’s card, passport, maps and half burnt books from the spot.Indian officials at that time said that the detonated explosives were being assembled in order to commit acts of terrorism in Bangladesh and assassinate tom top politicians including Prime Minister.Nine persons including Suburuddin Ali, a close relative of Sahanur Alam who is one of the main accused in the Burdwan blast, were arrested from Assam in connection with the blast. Of them, six were arrested from Barpeta district on October 9 are members of the JMB according to Indian police.The West Bengal Police arrested Sheikh Sadiq alias Sajid, the “chief of the Bardhaman module,” on Jessore Road near the Netaji Subhas Chandra airport on November 8. Sajid, reportedly hailed from Narayanganj in Bangladesh, had confessed that he had been involved in the blast.In response, the RAB arrested Sajid’s brother Mohammad Monayem from Farazikanda in Narayanganj on November 11. RAB also said that Sajid’s identity was not real and he might be one Masum, a suspected absconding militant operative. “We have launched an investigation into the bomb blasts and the investigators are trying to verify the names and identities that had emerged from the Indian investigation,” Lt Col Abul Kalam Azad, Director of the Intelligence Wing of Rapid Action Battalion [RAB], said.
