NEW DELHI: An alleged module of the Bangladeshi terror group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) which was busted by the Madhya Pradesh Police in March 2022, seems to be getting bigger.
Around three weeks after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) – which took over the case from MP Police in April – arrested a man from Bihar’s East Champaran district for having links with the busted module, two more arrests happened in the case from the outskirts of Bhopal on Sunday.
Two men identified as Hamidullah and Mohd Sahadat Hussain (both hailing from Bangladesh) were arrested by the NIA sleuths from Eitkhedi area of Bhopal on Sunday.
According to an NIA statement, the arrested Bangladeshi duo Hamidullah and Mohd Sahadat Hussain (who hail from Bangladesh’s Narayanganj and Madaripur districts respectively) are highly radicalized men and involved in propagating Jihad by posting hateful and incriminating materials online in various groups on different social media platforms to radicalize other people.
They were close associates of the earlier arrested accused in the case and were found to be using encrypted apps to communicate with their associates in India and Bangladesh, the NIA statement added.
With this so far nine men, including five hailing from Bangladesh, have been arrested in the case from MP capital Bhopal, its adjoining Vidisha district and Bihar.
Last month, a man identified as Ali Asgar was arrested by the NIA team from East Champaran district of Bihar for having active links with the JMB module busted in March with the arrest of four men in Bhopal.
The alleged JMB module was busted with the arrest of four men (three of whom were reportedly Bangladeshis) from Aishbag area of Bhopal by the MP police’s anti-terror squad (ATS) on March 13-14 intervening night. Two more arrests (both MP natives) were made from the Vidisha district of MP in April.
With the case having across the international border and inter-state linkages, it was taken over by the NIA in April.
Importantly, in March only, the West Bengal Police had arrested two men in connection with a separate case, but those two Howrah-based men too were connected to Bangladeshi men arrested in the JMB module case in Bhopal in March.