Sagar Biswas :
The security officials of Bangladesh and India believe that there is a close link between the terrorist incidents of Trishal and Burdwan as the fugitive militants of Jama’atul Mujahedin Bangladesh [JMB] might have created a new network in the neighbouring India.
The incident of Trishal came in the discussion when the visiting India`s National Investigation Agency [NIA] officials have claimed that there are several JMB operatives active in India who took part in Trishal jail break operation, officials said on Tuesday.
In this backdrop, the NIA officials have handed over photos of some suspected militants to the Bangladesh authorities who were allegedly involved in the October 2 blast in West Bengal’s Burdwan city, the officials added.
The NIA delegation and the six-member Bangladesh team headed by the Home Ministry’s Additional Secretary [Political] Kamal Uddin Ahmed held a meeting at the Police Headquarters in Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon.
Led by Director General Sri Sarad Kumar, the four member-strong NIA team also includes its Deputy Inspector General [DIG] Sajeeb Farid, Inspector General [investigations] Sanjeev Kumar Singh and DIG [investigations] Anurag Tankha.
The visiting NIA team yesterday also held a separate meeting with top officials of Rapid Action Battalion [RAB] at its headquarters in the city’s Uttara. They gave a list of 11 suspected militants to RAB at that time, Mufti Mahmud Khan, Director of Legal and Media Wing, RAB said.
According to Indian list, the suspected militants are – Kausar, Maolana Yusuf Sheikh alias Bakkar Md. Yusuf, Talha Sheikh, Rezaul Karim, Amjad Ali Sheikh alias Kajal, Abul Kalam Azad, Nasiruddin, Shahnur Alam, Burhan Sheikh, Sheikh Habibur Rahman and Zahurul Sheikh. Of them, Kausar and Talha Sheikh are probably Bangladeshi. The others 9 could be from Burdwan, Nadia or Birbhum. Different physical marks including, height and age of the suspects also have been mentioned in the list.
On the other hand, the Bangladesh authorities gave a list of 41 terrorists and seven militants to the NIA officials those are hiding in India.
They are Subrata Bain, Shahdat Hossain, JMB activist Amir Sohel Mahfuz, present commander Anwar alias Bomaru Mizan, Salehin, Tarikul, Shahin alias Rumi, Narattam Shaha alias Ashik, Jisan alias Mantu, Shahin Sikder, Kamrul Islam Joy, Molla Masud, Shamim Ahmed alias Aga Shamim, Kalachan alias Chan, Nurul Alam Prakash and Bikash Kumar.
“Among the JMB activists Salehin, Abu Sayed Sheikh Hossain, Maulana Tajuddin, Bomaru Mizan are remarkable,” Mufti Mahmud Khan further said.
“The NIA team has provided photos of some suspected militants. We have found similarities with four suspects in the photos. They are Faruk {Jamai Faruk], Mizan [Boma Mizan], Salehin and Sajeeb,” Monirul Islam, Joint Commissioner of Detective and Criminal Intelligence Division, Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP], said yesterday after the meeting.
He said, “Our intelligence agencies have also found some suspected persons in the list given by NIA who were allegedly involved in the Burdwan blast. The militants used their separate names in Bangladesh and India.”
Interestingly, the Bangladesh police earlier claimed that an Indian citizen was involved in the jailbreak operation at Trishal in Mymensingh that snatched three militants from police custody and left a policeman dead.
On February 23, JMB operatives conducted an operation to snatch Salahuddin alias Salehin alias Sajeeb, Zahidul Islam alias “Boma” Mizan and Rakib Hasan from custody in an attack on a prison van in Trishal during transportation from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur.
The attack on the prison van helped three top JMB leaders escape police custody besides killing a police man.
However, the Bangladesh authorities have agreed to extend full-fledged cooperation to NIA to conduct investigation into Burdwan blast incident as visiting Indian intelligence team already handed over lists of some militant outfit members along with a few cell phone numbers.
On October 2, 2014, an explosion occurred in a house in the Khagragarh locality of Burdwan where two suspected Indian Mujahedin were killed and another was injured.
Meanwhile, the NIA Monday arrested a Myanmar national from Hyderabad in connection with the Burdwan blast case.
The arrested suspect has been identified as 21-year-old Khalid Mohammed. He was living in the Telangana capital on the basis of fake identity documents.
NIA said Khalid has link with Tahreek-e-Taliban and is an IED expert. He is also a member of Rohingya Solidarity Organisation who involved in running terror camps in bordering areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar. Jihadi literature related to ISIS was also recovered from him.
NIA has already arrested JMB’s Chief commander for Burdwan module, Sajid, a Bangladeshi national, Amjad Sheikh and Zia-ul-Haque who allegedly procured explosives.
Besides, the RAB has captured Sajid’s brother Mohammad Monayem.
