Burdwan Blast: Financial brain behind JMB held

National Investigation Agency (NIA) today arrested Noor-ul-Haque, alleged to be a financial brain behind banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terror outfit, for his role in the larger conspiracy behind October blasts at Burdwan in West Bengal.

Haque, who had figured as Naeem during the investigation into the case, was apprehended outside Howrah railway station this morning by NIA sleuths and whisked away for interrogation, NIA officials said.

Haque, who carried a cash reward of Rs one lakh on his head and is considered to be a close aide of prime accused Sajjid, arrested chief of JMB, is alleged to have been collecting cash for running of the terror outfit, the officials said.

Haque is a resident of Bakshipur of Murshidabad district.

A senior NIA official said that those arrested by the agency earlier had often referred his name as Naeem and, therefore, NIA was not able to make any headway on this account.
It was only after sustained questioning of some of the accused and clues gathered during the probe that it was established that Naeem was the assumed name of Haque, they said.

With his arrest, the number of people nabbed in the case has gone to 21.

On October two last year, a blast took place inside a house at Khagragarh in which one person Sakil Gazi died on the spot and another person Sovan Mandal succumbed in hospital. Both of them were suspected to have terror links.

NIA later found that the actual identity of Mondal was Karim Sheikh and he had misled West Bengal police about his identity.

JMB is believed to have been formed in 1998 in Dhaka and surfaced only after arrest of its men in May 2002 along with 25 petrol bombs and documents detailing the activities of the organization.

NIA has filed a charge sheet in Burdwan blast case in March this year against 21 people in which the agency had claimed that JMB wanted to establish Sharia rule in Bangladesh by overthrowing the democratically-elected government in Bangladesh.