KOLKATA: Bangladesh on Monday sent a list of 11 Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JuMB) terrorists who may have sneaked into West Bengal after the terror attack at a café in Dhaka to the NIA and the Intelligence Bureau. The Awami League government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sent the list with sketches of the 11 terrorists who were said to have links with religious outfits in West Bengal and may have entered the State to seek refuge in Malda, Murshidabad and North 24 Parganas districts.
Police chiefs of Malda and Murshidabad, which share borders with Rajshahi in Bangladesh, and North 24 Parganas, which is contiguous with Saatkhira, considered to be JuMB strongholds, held meetings with the Border Guards of Bangladesh.
The NIA and BSF also informed their counterparts in Bangladesh about the terror camps being run in Saatkhira, Rajshahi and Jhenaidaha districts of Bangladesh. Former “mujahideen” Zia Afghani, who had been to Afghanistan to fight against the erstwhile Soviet Union’s “Red Army”, was imparting training to hundreds of young people including women.
Indian intelligence and security officers have fanned out across all districts in West Bengal which share borders with Bangladesh. They felt the 10 districts which share borders with Bangladesh were vulnerable since people frequently cross over for work and the terrorists may exploit it despite the presence of the BSF. The Directorate-General of National Security Intelligence of Bangladesh has also sent details of mobile call records of several JuMB terrorists who maintained links with some people in West Bengal, Assam, Andhra and Karnataka to Indian security agencies. After the Khagragarh blast and subsequent arrest of some JuMB terrorists in West Bengal, the NIA found out about their visits to the two South Indian states.
The NIA had also discovered some “madrasas” in Burdwan and Murshidabad where training in arms and manufacturing explosives were imparted to even young women. One of the “madrasa” chiefs from Domkol in Murshidabad was later arrested by the NIA. He had provided shelter to several JuMB terrorists who crossed over from Rajshahi. Moreover, agencies were trying to ascertain how AK 22 rifle were landed in the hands of groups in north east India.