KOLKATA: Security agencies hope that interrogation of Mohammad Jahidul Islam alias Kausar alias Boma Mizan, a most wanted Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terrorist suspected to be the mastermind of Burdwan and Bodh Gaya blasts who was arrested in Bengaluru on Sunday night, could help bust several JMB modules operating along the porous Indo-Bangladesh international border most notably in Murshidabad, Malda and Birbhum districts of West Bengal.
While police teams of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala are interrogating Kausar for terror activities in south India, West Bengal police is likely to soon seek his transit remand for interrogation into Burdwan and Bodh Gaya blasts.
“Most of the JMB leadership involved in Burdwan blasts was nabbed by us in September, 2016. However, Mizan was at large and carefully formed modules of younger terror operatives in Murshidabad, Malda and Birbhum districts over the past two years. The pressure cooker bombs planted in Bodh Gaya during Dalai Lama’s visit in January were made in Murshidabad under his directions,” a senior Kolkata Police Special Task Force (STF) official said.
“Kausar had also formed several grenade-making factories along the border districts of West Bengal for terror acts in Bangladesh on the directions of the top JMB leadership. The raw materials used to be supplied from both Bangladesh and their modules in south Bengal districts. While the grenade-making factories have been busted after getting inputs from the nabbed JMB terrorists in September 2016, the mastermind of these factories which was Kausar was still at large. He is a bomb expert who was behind several bomb blasts in Bangladesh and is wanted there,” he added.
Several modules of the terror outfit has been busted over the past two years but security agencies are particularly concerned with the cross-border movement of the JMB terrorists between central districts of West Bengal and western districts of Bangladesh.
“We suspect that JMB made Chapai Nawabganj a major base just to cross over into India during times of emergency. We want to permanently damage these hideouts and safe-houses in our territory and nab the local Indian collaborators of JMB operating along these two central West Bengal districts. For this, information from Boma Mizan is of utmost importance,” a top West Bengal CID officer said.
Terrorist nabbed
Another JMB terrorist suspected to be involved in Bodh Gaya bomb blasts was arrested by Kolkata STF from Pakuria in Jharkhand on Wednesday. The terrorist Dilwar Hassan, a resident of Kaliachak in Malda, would be brought on transit remand to Kolkata on Thursday and presented in the court.