JOIN USThe National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday said the accused persons arrested in the Burdwan blast case and their associates were members of terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Bangladesh (JMB), who were preparing IEDs for transporting them to that country for possible terror attacks.
In a statement issued on Friday night, NIA said it had completed initial phase of probe in the case pertaining to the bomb blast in a house at Khagragarh village in Burdawan district of West Bengal which indicates the involvement of JMB cadre. Two persons—Shakil Ahmed and Suvon Mandal alias Subhan — both allegedly residents of Bangladesh, were killed while manufacturing IEDs. One person Abdul Hakim alias Hassan was injured and arrested besides three others including two women.
“Investigation so far has revealed that the accused persons and their associates were the members of JMB, a terrorist organisation proscribed in Bangladesh and they were preparing IEDs which were being transported to Bangladesh,” NIA said in the statement.
NIA chief Sharad Kumar on Friday visited Burdwan and inspected the scene of the incident and also took stock of the field investigation being conducted by the agency. He visited the house where the blast took place, examined the rooms and went up to the terrace of the building.
After spending about 30 minutes there, he went to visit another house at nearby Mathpara on Badsahi Road in Burdwan where 40 improvised hand grenades were found.
The NIA director-general also visited the house which one of the suspected dead terrorists Shakil had rented in Beldanga in Murshidabad.
He also went to “Burqa Ghar”, apparently a burqa making unit run by Ahmed but suspected to have been used by him as a place to meet other accused persons.
Kumar discussed with NIA officers the strategy to locate and apprehend the absconding accused with the officers of the investigating team, after which he said strategies have been worked out to arrest the absconding accused persons.
The visit of the NIA DG to Burdwan town came two weeks after the agency took over investigations into the blast at Khagragarh on October 2.