A top Indian official has handed the Indian government a list of alleged Bangladeshi militants using West Bengal as a safe haven, preparatory to sharing investigation details with the government of Bangladesh, Indian media reported.
India’s national security adviser (NSA), Ajit Doval, handed over the list of 180 alleged Bangladeshi militants hiding in West Bengal after visiting the October 2 bomb blast site in Bardhaman, The Hindustan Times quoted sources as saying.
He told the West Bengal chief minister on Monday that the border district of Jalpaiguri had emerged as a new terror hub in the state, suggesting that the terror network extended beyond the south eastern town of Bardhaman and neighbouring areas.
The NSA and other top security and intelligence chiefs told chief minister Mamata Banerjee that operatives of the Jama’at-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had taken refuge in the state for the past two years.
“Besides pointing out that Jalpaiguri has turned into yet another terror point for JMB, the central representatives also handed over a list of unrecognised madrasas in the state operating as terror-breeding hubs,” said a state government source on condition of anonymity. “The central team also informed the chief minister that during the last couple of years the number of terror modules in West Bengal had gone beyond 50.”
The Mamata Banerjee government said it would cooperate with a central investigation into the Bardhaman blast, in which two JMB operatives were killed while making bombs in a rented house.
The chief minister initially resisted a probe by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the incident that exposed a network of alleged Bangladeshi terrorists spread over several West Bengal districts, the report said.
“The chief minister and the West Bengal government have assured us that the Centre and the state will work together in unearthing the entire case,” Prakash Mishra, special secretary for internal security in the Union home ministry, told the media after the meeting with Banerjee.
The NSA and his team also referred to the alleged links of a Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal with two Bangladeshi militant groups – JMB and Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.
An NIA report says that the JMB, a shadowy organisation formed in 2005, has plans to establish an Islamic state encompassing Bangladesh and Murshidabad, Nadia and Malda districts of West Bengal, according to the report.
Three people, including two women, were arrested in the Bardhaman case and questioned by the NIA which took over the probe after the state government faced a barrage of criticism for allegedly mishandling the investigation.
Opposition parties have accused Banerjee of allowing extremist elements to flourish in the state for vote-bank politics, the report said.
“It is clear that Trinamool Congress is allowing jihadi elements in Bengal. Mere assurances will not drive them out,” the report quoted state BJP president Rahul Sinha as saying.
Apart from SIM cards, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), detonators and watch dials, some leaflets and papers with names of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and Chechen rebels were reportedly recovered from the Bardhaman house, which the suspected militants had rented a few months ago.
The central delegation’s visit to the West Bengal blast site has come as the Union government prepares to send a report on the issue to the Bangladesh government.