FBI team checks in on IS detainee in Kolkata

A TERROR suspect from West Bengal’s Birbhum district, who is said to have planned attacks against US nationals in India on behalf of the Jamaat-ulmujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), was questioned in Kolkata Thursday by officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Sources told The Indian Express that Mohammad Masiuddin, alias Musa, was questioned by a seven-member FBI team, which reached Kolkata on Wednesday, at the state headquarters of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Salt Lake.

The NIA had obtained custody of Musa from a local court for two days starting Thursday. Sources said that the FBI visit was part of its global study and monitoring of select detainees with alleged Islamic State links.

Musa is said to have been in contact with Abu Suleiman, the alleged mastermind of the Dhaka cafe attack on July 1, and had been interrogated for days in August by Bangladesh’s antiterror agency, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), for his suspected IS links.

Musa had also been interrogated by the West Bengal CID and NIA after being arrested on July 4 by railway and local police from the Burdwan station where he arrived on the Viswabharati