FBI interrogates militant Musa in Kolkata

The seven-member FBI team landed in Kolkata on December 8 and visited the local office of the Indian counter-terrorism agency National Investigation Agency (NIA). There they met Indian national Mohammad Masiuddin alias Abu Musa and spoke to him for three hours, and again for five hours the next day, reports Bangla Tribune. Musa was arrested from the Bardwan railway station on July 4, three days after the terrorist attack on a Gulshan restaurant in Dhaka. The Indian intelligence identifies him as an Islamic State operative. Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies, however, claim he is a member of banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). Musa has told a Kolkata court that he is an Indian national. The FBI team earlier visited Kolkata only twice and both visits had been related to major incidents like the Purulia arms drop and the attack on the American Centre in the city. A joint law enforcement team from Dhaka visited Kolkata in August and interrogated Musa. They connected him with Islami Chhatra Shibir leader and Rajshahi University English department student Shariful Islam, known to him as Abu Suleiman. Shariful is the prime suspect in the murder of Rajshahi University teacher Prof Rezaul Karim Siddique and is believed to be involved with the Holey Artisan Bakery attack on July 1. Rajshahi police declared Tk1 lakh bounty on his head. According to Indian intelligence, Abu Suleiman had instructed Musa to “kill white Americans wherever they are found.” Indian Investigation Bureau says as the Islamic State gets increasingly cornered in Iraq and Syria, the terrorist organisation is pushed to step up its operations across the world, especially by targeting American citizens. Musa was a big part of that plan and the FBI investigators sought to understand Musa’s network, Indian intelligence said.