KOLKATA COPS ARREST TWO IN BODH GAYA BLAST CASE
The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police on Thursday arrested two members of terror outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in connection with the low-intensity blast and recovery of two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on January 19 in the Buddhist temple town of Bodh Gaya in Bihar during the stay of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Gaya senior superintendent of police Garima Malik said Mohammad Paigamber Sheikh, 24, and Jamirul Sheikh, 31, were arrested in West Bengal on Thursday. She said 50 kg of explosive ammonium nitrate, a laptop, a mobile phone, Aadhar cards, passports and other documents were recovered from them.
An official of Bihar anti-terrorist squad (ATS), who is associated in the investigation, said Paigamber Sheikh was arrested from Kankuria village in Samsherganj police station area of Murshidabad, where he worked as an Arabic teacher in a school and also as an imam of a village mosque. He also had a small business of attar or perfumes.
Jamirul, of Sijaltalla village in Ratanpur police station area of Murshidabad, was nabbed from Phansideva in Darjeeling, the ATS official, who did not wished to be quoted, said.
The Kolkata STF was assisted by Murshidabad, Siliguri and Darjeeling police, he said.
The arrested JMB operatives had admitted that they had visited Bodh Gaya and were part of the team which planted the IEDs near the Kalchakra Maidan and Mahabodhi temple, a Unesco world heritage site, at Bodh Gaya during Dalai Lama’s visit, the ATS official added.
Malik said the Gaya police and other agencies involved in the investigation had provided specific inputs to the West Bengal police about the presence of suspects in the neighbouring state.
The West Bengal link in the case surfaced after the autorickshaw driver, who had dropped the five suspects near the Kalchakra Maidan where the Dalai Lama was holding his special teaching sessions, told police that two of them spoke Bengali.
Magadh range deputy inspector general (DIG) Vinay Kumar said a team of officials involved in the probe would soon visit West Bengal to interrogate the arrested JMB operatives.
On January 19, a low-intensity bomb had gone off near the Kalchakra ground and two IEDs were detected around the Mahabodhi temple.
GAYA: PAIGAMBER SHEIKH WAS ARRESTED FROM A MURSHIDABAD VILLAGE , WHERE HE WORKED AS AN ARABIC TEACHER
IN A SCHOOL AND ALSO AS AN IMAM OF A VILLAGE MOSQUE