KOLKATA: A top operative of the terrorist outfit Jamaat-e-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was on Monday arrested from Bihar by the special task force (STF) of the Kolkata Police, a senior officer said on Monday.
Armed with specific intelligence input, the Kolkata STF and Gaya police carried out a joint raid at Pathantoli village in Buniyadpur police station and rounded up the suspect Mohammad Ejaz Ahmed, who is the head of the India module of JMB.
“We have arrested Mohammad Ejaz Ahmed in his late 30s from a hideout in Gaya where he was staying for three months. He is the in-charge of JMB’s module in India. He is the main recruiter of the JMB in India,’’ said Subhankar Sinha Sarkar, joint commissioner of police, Kolkata STF.
According to STF sources, Ejaz, a resident of Abinashpur in Parui in Birbhum district, was the mastermind of the blasts at Bodh Gaya during Dalai Lama’s Bihar trip in 2018. ‘‘He was in touch with Mohammad Jahidul Islam alias Kausar, the key JMB operative responsible for the Burdwan blast case in 2014 in which two persons were killed.
JMB’s presence in West Bengal and India emerged after the blast,’’ said an STF officer.
Kausar was the chief of JMB’s India module.
‘‘Ejaz was given the responsibility after the NIA arrested Kausar in 2018,’’ said the officer.
Top terrorist in the dock
Name: Mohammad Ejaz Ahmed
Title: Head of India module of JMB
Arrested: From Gaya, Bihar
Role: Mastermind of the blastsat Bodh Gaya in 2018. Main recruiter of the JMB in India