JMB cadres carried out robberies in Bengaluru to fund terror activities

... the JMB operatives carried out at least three robberies in Bengaluru while being on the run after planting bombs in Bodh Gaya in January this year A SENIOR NIA OFFICIAL

NEWDELHI: Operatives of the terror outfit Jamaat-ul-mujahideen Bangladesh’s (JMB) carried out robberies in Bengaluru to sustain their activities after planting bombs in Bodh Gaya this January, officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said on Sunday, adding that it was neither the first nor the last time that Jihadists fall back on theft to achieve their goals.

The terror outfit planted three improvised explosive devices (IEDS) at the Mahabodhi temple when the Dalai Lama was visiting the Buddhist shrine. The plan was to target a large number of pilgrims but the devices were discovered by security forces due to a malfunction.

Bangladeshi national Zahidul-islam, alias Qausar, was arrested by NIA in connection with the case from Bengaluru early last month. The prized terror catch, who was on the run since an October 2014 blast in Burdwan, West Bengal, has given investigators extensive details about the activities and network of JMB in India.

The accidental blast in Burdwan, where JMB cadres were preparing Improvised Explosive Devices, revealed how JMB was using the border districts of West Bengal and Assam as hideouts to save its cadres from a crackdown in Bangladesh.

“A group of Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) operatives in Madhya Pradesh looted gold from the branches of a loan company to buy a flat in Jharkhand to use as a hideout. A Kolkata-based shoe baron was kidnapped by the group of jihadists who later attacked the American Centre in the West Bengal capital in 2002. Similarly, the JMB operatives carried out at least three robberies in Bengaluru while being on the run after planting bombs in Bodh Gaya in Janaury this year,” said a senior NIA official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The NIA has formally informed the Karnataka police about the robberies carried out by JMB operatives, he added.

Qausar was first arrested in Bangladesh on May 14, 2009 and remained in prison till February 23, 2014, when his associates managed to engineer his escape from police custody while he was being taken to Mymensingh from Dhaka. Within one month, he managed to flee to India and has remained here since then, another NIA official said.

Giving details of the JMB’S Indian network, Qausar told interrogators that the outfit has three-tier network in India. The top layer ‘Majlis-e-shoora’ operated under the chief of the outfit. The Second layer consisted of full-time members including the armed cadre, and then there were ‘Sudhi’ or ‘Saathis’ who were basically sympathisers of the outfit. Full-time members of the JMB used to get a stipend of ₹1000 per month which was later increased to ₹1500.

The second NIA official said that JMB started its first madrasa in Burdwan district in 2008 and second madarsa in Lalgola, Murshidabad four years later. These madarsas were later used for training JMB cadres, he said.

“Bengal was divided into two divisions – Murshidabad/nadia and Burdwan/birbhum – by JMB. The bomb-making exercise first began in Beldanga of West Bengal but was later shifted to Burdwan. Following the accidental blast at the Burdwan bomb factory, Qausar first came to Patna and then reached Bengaluru, where he stayed in threefour different hideouts in the different parts of the city.

In November last year, he went to Ambur in Tamil Nadu but again shifted back to Bengaluru and remained there till his arrest,” he added.