A team of Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) is set to visit Bangladesh on November 17 “as part of their investigation into the Bardhaman blast linked to members of banned Bangladeshi militant outfit.”
Quoting NIA sources, Indian news media Zee News disclosed the date of the visit on Thursday.
According to a report of Zee News, the NIA has come across various information about the activities of JMB members across India and their links with Bangladesh.
“Besides, after interrogation of the arrested persons involved in the blast, the NIA has come to the conclusion that at least 120 IEDs were transported to Bangladesh in four batches.”
Earlier, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also informed that the Indian detective team would visit Bangladesh to probe the incident.
He made the statement while taking to the journalists at the secretariat in the capital on Monday afternoon.
He said: “We will be able to know about the matter once the team arrives here,” he said.
The October 2 bomb blast incident in the West Bengal town of Bardhaman demonstrates the effort of banned Islamist outfit JMB to expand their operational network, Bangladesh intelligence officials claim.
Inspired by a recent video message by al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri, members of Jamaat’ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) are working to expand their network to include India, Myanmar and Bangladesh in order to draw al-Qaeda’s attention, they said.
Intelligence sources believe JMB is motivated by the desire to become a major regional al-Qaeda affiliate.
One Shakil Ahmed died on the spot and another person Sovan Mandal died in hospital in the blast. Both were suspected to have links with JMB.
Another person- Hasan Saheb – who was also injured in the blast, gave some information which led to the arrest of six people in Assam.
However, only two women including the wife of one of the dead man was useful in giving some sketchy information about the blast conspiracy.
The arrested accused identified Sajid and his wife Fatima as “lead trainers” at Simulia Madrasa where people were being indoctrinated in jihad and kept in readiness for indulging in terror activities.
Sajid is alleged to have paid money of Rs8.75 lakh to another accused Kausar, another Bangladeshi national, for purchase of land for a madrasa in Bardhaman.
On November 8, West Bengal police arrested Sajid, a Bangladeshi national and chief commander of terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangaldesh (JMB).
Sajid was arrested from the Airport area of North 24-Parganas district.
"Today we arrested a person Sheikh Rahamatullah. He is a Bangladeshi. After interrogation, it was revealed that he is Sajid who is involved in the Burdwan blast case and is the chief of Burdwan module. This is also confirmed by the fact that NIA has declared the cash award of Rs10 lakhs," Bidhannagar Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar told reporters.
"Sajid, alias Sheikh Rahmatullah, is a member of Jamat-ul-Mujahadeen Bangladesh and is a member of Majlis-e-Sura which is the central committee of Jamat," Kumar said.
On November 9, a Kolkata court placed him on remand.
India has also sought details from Bangladesh about the interrogation report of two JMB militants Asif Adnan and Fazle Elahi Tanjil, who were arrested from Segunbagicha area of Dhaka.
India will also hand over a dossier to Bangladesh government for preventive steps and necessary action needed to be taken by Dhaka to counter the threat posed by JMB, the report stated.
