Top operative of terror outfit JMB held from Gaya

A top operative of terror outfit Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), who was involved in the 2018 Bodh Gaya blast, was arrested from Bihar by the special task force (STF) of the Kolkata Police on Monday.

The Centre in May declared the Bangladesh-based JMB, which was blamed for the terror attack at a cafe in Dhaka in 2016 in which 22 people including 17 foreigners were killed, as a banned terrorist organisation.

Ejaz Ahmad alias Amir, a resident of Birbhum district of West Bengal, was apprehended from a house at Pathan Toli locality of Buniyadganj police station area in Gaya district, a police officer said in Gaya.

"He (Ahmad) is the topmost Indian functionary and the main recruiter of the organisation working in this country. He was in constant touch with JMB terrorists in Bangladesh. He is wanted in a number of JMB-related cases," a police officer said in Kolkata.

Acting on a tip-off that the accused was hiding in Gaya district, a team of the Kolkata Police STF and Bihar Police conducted a raid and nabbed him.

"Ahmad had played a vital role in the Bodh Gaya blast in 2018. He was living with his wife and children under different names and was regularly changing address," he said.

A low-intensity bomb had exploded on January 19 last year, hours after Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama had finished a sermon at the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya.

"He was working as the main recruiter working in different illegal madrasas which came up in the Indo- Bangladesh borders of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam," the IPS officer added.

Ahmad has been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Explosive Substances Act, he added.

No weapon was recovered from his possession, the police said adding that they would be sending his mobile phone for forensic tests to find out details of his contacts, he added.

After the Bodh Gaya blast, Ahmad had fled first to Bangalore and then to Kerala and in both places, he used to work as a mason from West Bengal. He returned to Gaya sometime back.