Hunt on for Burdwan terror kingpin

The hunt is on for a number of characters who played key roles in the alleged terror module in Burdwan, even as investigators begin to believe more firmly that several madrassas acted as hubs of jihadi activities in the region.

The sleuths’ primary objective is to apprehend Yusuf, who was the head of a madrassa in Burdwan, and is fast emerging as the kingpin of the terror story that unravelled when a bomb exploded at Burdwan’s Khagragarh on October 2, killing the bomb-maker Shakil Ahmed and another person, and injuring one Abdul Hakim.

The manhunt list also includes the names of Kausar and his two women associates, Nazimullah, Saqeeb and Sajid—all of whom vanished soon after the blast.

State CID officials believe they will receive crucial information about all of them by interrogating Rajira Bibi and Amina Bibi, the two women arrested from Khagragarh on October 3 and currently being held at the CID headquarters in Kolkata.

Sources said even though initially it seemed that Shakil was the group’s head, the probe now points a finger at Yusuf, who ran the Shimulia madrassa at Burdwan’s Mangalkot, a few kilometres from Khagragarh.

Yusuf received land for the madrassa as a grant in 2002, but he seemed to have had other plans. The interrogation of Rajira and Amina has established that Yusuf was the man who trained second-in-command Shakil and Rajira in jihadi activities. He also trained Hakim and Amina, among others.