Terrorists planned to kill Bangladesh PM

Amidst stalemate between the National Investigating Agency (NIA) and West Bengal Police CID over who should probe the October 2 Burdwan blast case, agencies may have stumbled on proof that the blasts were a precursor to a much bigger terror attack across India and Bangladesh. 

Besides targeting Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and even Kolkata, terrorists also had plans to assassinate Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Haseena.

Sources said documents and leaflets obtained from the house at Khagragarh in Burdwan, 170 km north of Kolkata where the blasts took place on October 2, point to a grander plot to cause widespread distruction. 

“The outfit which is behind the conspiracy could have been planning blasts in Kolkata and other parts of the country. A substantial cache of explosives, detonators and other materials have been found that could be used to trigger a number of blasts.
We’re trying to ascertain where these explosives were headed,” a senior official told Deccan Herald.

While officials were wary of mentioning the Bangladesh prime minister due to the sensitive nature of relations with the neighbouring country, they were shocked by the reach and penetration of the terror network. “It was easier to comprehend such an attack taking place in a district bordering Bangladesh, but we were not aware that the terror network has penetrated so far inside the state. Burdwan is almost at the centre of Bengal,” an official said. 

Officials said they have made more arrests following Sunday’s capture of Rajira Bibi and Maina Bibi, wives of Shakil Ahmed and Hasaan Saheb respectively. 

While Shakil died in the blast, an injured Saheb is recovering at a state-run hospital. State CID Deputy Inspector General (Operations), Dilip Adak, told reporters that Hafez Mollah was detained by CID on Sunday from his house and was formally arrested on Monday.

While names of outfits like Lashkar-e-Toyba and Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami are doing the rounds, agencies believe a new outfit named Al-Jihad could have been behind the current plot. 

“The blast must have taken place while they were assembling improvised explosive devices (IED). We’ve found large quantities of ammonium nitrate, digital wrist watches, detonators, lengths of wire and batteries, things one need to build an IED,” an official said.

Meanwhile, the incident took a political turn with both BJP and CPM expressing suspicion that the ruling Trinamool Congress was hand in glove with terrorists and are trying to cover up. 

Siddhartha Nath Singh of BJP, who expressed apprehension that state agencies could cover up the truth, demanded the probe be handed over to NIA. “Why is Trinamool government not handing over the investigation (to NIA)? The delay is raising serious questions of a cover up…,” he said.