Indian police have arrested a 36-year-old woman suspected of being involved in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and carry out a coup, Indian police said yesterday.
Meanwhile, West Bengal police arrested the main accused in Burdwan blast, Sajid, allegedly a Bangladeshi national and chief commander of terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), according Indian media reports.
The arrest of the 36-year-old woman comes days after Indian security officials said they had uncovered a plot by members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, accused of carrying out scores of attacks in Bangladesh, targeting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, according to a report by Reuters.
The group also planned to assassinate opposition BNP’s leader, Khaleda Zia, Indian officials said.
Pallab Bhattacharjee, additional director general of police in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, said the woman had also been charged with collecting arms with an intention of waging war against India.
“She has been arrested by the special operations unit of the Assam Police and will be produced in court today,” he said.
The alleged assassination conspiracy was discovered after two members of the outlawed group were killed in an explosion while building homemade bombs at a house in Burdwan in West Bengal in eastern India last month.
Indian police say the militants were Bangladeshis and were using India as a safe haven to plan the attacks.
With the arrest of Sajid, on whose head the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had announced a cash reward of Rs10 lakh, the exact plan of the terror group is likely to come to fore, according to a Hindustan Times report.
Sajid was arrested by West Bengal Police a couple of days back, official sources said yesterday but refused to immediately divulge the exact location and circumstances leading to his arrest.
Sajid had been extensively questioned by the police and sleuths of central agencies about the functioning of JMB and its plans within the country and in Bangladesh.