NIA launches massive hunt for JMB leaders

This comes in when Bangladesh police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque claimed that JMB militants were behind the attack at Dhaka that left 20 people including 17 foreigners dead, and didn’t rule out the possibility of connection between the banned militant outfit with “international terror groups”.

 JMB militants had a hand in the  Khagragarh explosion in Burdwan and the incident established that the terror outfit had expanded their network in the Bengal- Bangladesh border.

Sources said that JMB leaders including Kausar and Yusuf, who were considered to be the key figures of the outfit in West Bengal, are still at large. The duo ( Kausar & Yusuf) had chalked out the road map for spreading the terror outfit’s tentacles in the state and to some north-eastern states.  Soon after the Khagragarh blast, the investigating officers had thought that they had escaped to Bangladesh. Though, some of the JMB militants were arrested from the neighbouring country, Kausar and Yusuf had managed to dodge security agencies.

The arrest of Ashique Ahmed from Hooghly had made the penetration of IS to the state clear. Investigations had also pointed to the close links between Ahmed, who is lodged  in Tihar Jail, and the JMB leadership. Thus, the arrest of the JMB leaders tops the NIA’s priority list.

Since the porous India-Bangladesh border has helped terror operatives to sneak into the country, NIA had alerted the Border Security Force to intensify the vigil.

It is understood that a NIA team will soon go to Bangladesh to ascertain whether any of the leaders who were part of JMB’s India module  had any role in the terror attack in Dhaka.

Steps have also been taken to ensure safety and security of the passengers who travel in buses between Bangladesh and India.