Hyderabad: Terrorism is no more a national phenomenon but is global and its effectiveness comes from networking with terrorist outfits of other nations. Today no nation can fight terrorism on its own and need a global agency to tackle the menace.
The attack in Burdwan district of West Bengal has been found with yet another foreign connection. In a major breakthrough, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a Myanmar national on Monday from Hyderabad in connection with the blast case of October 2 which left two suspected terrorists dead.
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 links with Tahreek-e-Taliban and is an IED expert. He is also said to be involved in running terror camps in bordering areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Jihadi literature related to ISIS was also recovered from him.
Importantly, Khalid’s arrest comes at a time when an NIA team is in Bangladesh to probe the terror trail linked with the blast in Burdwan district of West Bengal.
India is seeking cooperation to unravel the plans of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terror outfit allegedly responsible for the blast.
NIA has been investigating militant networks after the October 2 blast at a house, visibly turned into a clandestine bomb manufacturing factory, in Burdwan district while the security officials earlier said JMB had spread its clandestine network in bordering areas in India.
Two suspected militants had died in the explosion that rocked the Burdwan house and their two wives, believed also to be trained by the JMB, were caught.
Other accused Hafez Molla alias Hasan, Rajira alias Razia Bibi and Alima Bibi would be in NIA custody are in NIA custody.
Seeking to unravel the plot behind the Burdwan blast, a team of officials from India’s National Investigation Agency on Monday held talks with their Bangladeshi counterparts.
“They (NIA delegation) are holding a meeting with our senior secretary (of the home ministry) Mohammad Mozammel Haque Khan and other concerned officials,” a home ministry spokesman said.
He told the media that a delegation of the Indian high commission in Dhaka also joined the NIA in the meeting.
The four-member team led by NIA Director General Sharad Kumar will seek cooperation to unravel the plans of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terror outfit.
Earlier, Dhaka had assured of sharing its intelligence.
The visit came after NIA made major headway in the case by arresting JMB’s Chief Commander for Burdwan module, Sajid, a Bangladeshi national, Amjad Sheikh and Zia-ul-Haque who allegedly procured explosives and motivated youth for terror groups. Bangladesh’s elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has captured Sajid’s brother Mohammad Monayem.
Indian mission in Dhaka on Monday said the NIA team would “hold meetings with relevant authorities of Bangladesh as part of ongoing bilateral security cooperation”.
Bangladesh’s state minister for home Asaduzzaman Khan told the NIA delegation was expected to join and work together with a Bangladesh team formed with heads of intelligence chiefs in Dhaka.
NIA has been investigating militant networks after the 2 October blast at a house, visibly turned into a clandestine bomb manufacturing factory, in Burdwan district while the security officials earlier said JMB had spread its clandestine network in bordering areas in India.
India will also share with Bangladesh government details of its probe for preventive steps and necessary action needed to be taken by Dhaka to counter the threat posed by JMB. India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had visited Burdwan for having first-hand knowledge of the conspiracy being hatched by JMB to target Bangladesh government from Indian soil.
JMB and other Bangladesh-based militant groups like Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) have suffered a setback in the past years after massive anti-militant clampdown but reports often suggest they were trying to work together.
In 2005, JMB allegedly exploded 500 low intensity bombs at over 300 spots in Bangladesh’s 62 districts, killing two persons. In subsequent years, it carried out a series of bomb blasts across the country and killed scores of people including two judges.
The blasts prompted authorities to launch a massive anti-militant campaign during which they learned that JMB had their organisational network in India’s West Bengal state.
Six JMB kingpins including former JMB head Shaikh Abdur Rahman and second in command Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai were executed in 2007 after trial while several hundred others were handed down long term imprisonments.