Six JMB operatives arrested from West Bengal, Assam
KOLKATA: In a major breakthrough in the 2014 Khagragarh blast case, the Special Task Force of Kolkata Police arrested six Jamaat-ulMujahideen (Bangladesh) terrorists from Assam and West Bengal. Among the six arrested, five are named in the chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Khagragarh blast case.
Three of those arrested are Indians while others are Bangladeshi nationals. “Sizable quantities of explosive material, detonators, explosive powders and improvised explosive devices (IED) were recovered from the accused. We also seized fake Indian and Bangladeshi currency and mobiles and laptops from them,” said Kolkata police’s joint commissioner of police (Crime) Vishal Garg.
With the arrests, only three of the 29 named in the Khagragarh blast case now remain absconding.
“Investigations revealed that the terrorists were planning to carry out immediate attacks in the North-East and southern India. However, their primary aim is to overthrow the democratically elected Bangladesh government. They were absconding since the blast took place in 2014,” said a Special Task Force (STF) sleuth.
On October 2, 2014, an IED explosion in a two-storey building in the Khagragarh locality of Burdwan town killed two and exposed a wide network of Bangladeshi jihadis running a virtual arms-and-explosive factory in the state.