NIA arrests two JMB members in Burdwan blast case

The NIA has arrested two suspected Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) members from West Bengal's Hooghly district for their alleged involvement in the 2014 Burdwan blast case, the agency said on Tuesday.

The arrested members have been identified as Kadar Kazi, 32, alias Kadoor and Sajjad Ali, 21.

"Both JMB members were arrested in different operations on Monday. We arrested Kadar Kazi from Arambagh area in Hooghly district, while his associate Sajjad Ali was held in a late-night operation," a National Investigation Agency (NIA) official said.

The official said Kazi was wanted in the Burdwan blast case and was also declared a proclaimed offender, while Ali was involved in the activities of the JMB, a Bangladesh-based terror group.

Both accused were on Tuesday produced before a special NIA court in Kolkata which sent them to 14-day custody of the agency.

A bomb had ripped through a house in Khagragarh locality of Burdwan on October 2, 2014, killing two people and exposing a web of Bangladeshis running a virtual arms-and-explosive network in West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand.

The NIA in March 2015 submitted a charge-sheet in the case, saying terrorists were using territories in the three states to overthrow a democratic government in Bangladesh and replace it with a hardline Islamic regime.

Kazi was named in the charge-sheet in connection with the case for his direct involvement in the JBM conspiracy to "wage war against government of India and Bangladesh" on March 30, 2015 and December 14, 2015. Kazi was declared a proclaimed offender with a reward of Rs 5 lakh, the official said.

According to the official, Ali was an associate of Kazi and was in touch with the other accused of JMB through encrypted communication of protected text and other social media apps, as revealed by him during initial questioning.

"Incriminating articles like battery, wires, electronic circuit, electronic clocks and watches to be used for the preparation of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were seized from their possession," said the official.

--IANS

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