Bangladesh (JMB) was trying to spread its tentacles across India and a list of 125 suspects have been shared with different states, chief of National Investigation Agency (NIA) Y C Modi said on Monday. Addressing a meeting of chiefs of the Anti Terrorism Squads (ATS), Modi said the JMB has spread its activities in states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala in the guise of Bangladeshi immigrants.
“The NIA has shared with states concerned a list of 125 suspected activists who have close links with the JMB leadership," he said. Inspector General of the NIA Alok Mittal said from 2014 to 2018, the JMB has set up 20-22 hideouts in Bangalore and tried to spread its bases in South India.
“The JMB even conducted a trial of rocket launchers in the Krishnagiri hills along the Karnataka border," he said. Mittal said the JMB was keen to attack Buddhists temples to take revenge for the plight of Rohingiya Muslims in Myanmar. Earlier, investigations by NIA into the 2014 Burdwan blasts revealed that JMB was trying to topple Sheikh Hasina government by establishing Sharia law and spread its tentacles in India.
In a second supplementary charge sheet submitted in 2015 over Bardhaman blast case, NIA accused Nurul Hoque Mondal alias Naeem and 27 others at a Kolkata court for waging war against Bangladesh, an Asiatic power which is in alliance and peace with India. "They (JMB) hatched a conspiracy wherein the main purpose was to establish Sharia Law in Bangladesh by toppling (the) democratically elected government and to spread tentacles in India for the furtherance of their goal," a NIA release issued on Monday said.
"Their (JMBs) intention and conduct was evident from the preparation they made in the form of full-fledged bomb making factory at Khagragarh, Burdwan to radicalise vulnerable sections, recruit new members and train them at selected madrasas at Simulia and Mukimnagar and certain other places/hideouts.
"They also intended to collect funds for the banned outfit for its members on the pretext of helping poor Muslim students-- a fact which was established during further investigation," it said.Probe into the matter established that all the 27 accused were associated with each other, the NIA said.
On grilling Naeem, NIA had learnt that the outfit was trying to build networks in Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts too.Naeem had gone to Bangladesh and stayed at Jatrabari in Dhaka and also to Mirpur for nearly one and half months and was trained in bomb-making by one Bashir alias Talha and Anish alias Kausar, the release said.
Bashir is the son of senior JMB leader Saidur Rahman in Bangladesh, it said.Naeem, a resident of Bakshipur in Murshidabad, was arrested in June from Howrah railway station.