India declares Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh terrorist organisation

The Centre on Friday declared Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and its manifestations in India as terrorist outfits under section 35 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

"In the 1st Schedule to the said Act, the following entries shall be inserted, namely - Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Hindustan and all its manifestations," the Union Home Ministry said in a gazette notification.

The notification said that the proscribed organisations indulged and promoted the acts of terrorism and have been engaged in radicalisation and recruitment of youths for terrorist activities in India.

It said that JMB was engaged in recruitment and raising funds for terrorist activities, procurement of explosives/chemicals and assembling of improvised explosives devices (IEDs).

JMB cadres were also found to be involved in the Burdwan bomb blast on October 2, 2014 and the Bodhgaya blast on January 19, 2018, it said.

"Investigations have also revealed JMB's plan of making permanent bases within ten kilometres along the Indo-Bangladesh border in the districts of States of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura and plans of spreading its network in South India with an overarching motive to establish Caliphate in the Indian subcontinent," the notification added.