Burdwan blast accused held near Bengaluru

Officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested a 28-year-old terror suspect in connection with the 2014 Burdwan bomb blast case from Doddaballapura town in Bengaluru Rural district.

The accused, Habibur Rehman SK alias Habibur SK alias Sheikh alias Habibur Kabore Shaik, is a native of Muluk Shantipalli village in Birbhum, West Bengal, and is suspected to be a member of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB), a Bangladesh-based terror outfit.

NIA officials, who were on his trail, managed to nab him from a local mosque in Doddaballapura, where he had taken shelter while on the run. Rehman was planning to set up a chaat business.

Rehman was staying in a rented accommodation in the mosque with the help of an imam, who is from Assam and working in the mosque over the past one year.

In 2015, the NIA had charge-sheeted Rehman accusing him of conspiring with the JMB to wage war against the government of India and Bangladesh.

Rehman was a close associate of senior JMB leader Jahidul Islam alias Kausar. He was also associated with other JMB leaders like Rahmatullah SK and Moulana Yusuf.

He was an active member of Bolpur module of the JMB in West Bengal. He had attended a number of training camps conducted by the JMB, NIA officials said.

The accused was produced before the NIA court in Bengaluru and taken to Kolkata on a five-day transit warrant for further interrogation.

Rahman was involved in preparing a crude bomb at the house of Hasan Choudhari at Khagragarh town in Burdwan town on October 2014.

The bomb exploded while it was being assembled, killing two persons and injuring a few others. Local police had registered a case which was later taken over by the NIA. While police arrested six persons accused in the case, Rahman and a few others were on the run.