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India bans JMB terror outfit

By Kalyan Barooah

NEW DELHI, May 24 - In a development that is likely to have an impact on Islamic terror activities in Assam and other northeastern States, the Centre on Friday banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

The outfit, also called as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Hindustan, has been declared as a banned terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In a notification, the home ministry said the outfit has committed acts of terrorism, promoted acts of terrorism and has been engaged in radicalisation and recruitment of youths for terrorist activities in India. Therefore, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Hindustan and all its manifestations have been inserted in the First Schedule to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the notification said.

The listing under the First Schedule of the UAPA means the outfit is now a banned organisation in India, official sources said.

The JMB was founded in April 1998 in Palampur in Dhaka by Abdur Rahman and gained public prominence in 2001 when bombs and documents detailing the activities of the organisation were discovered in Parbatipur in Dinajpur district.

The organisation was officially declared a terrorist outfit and banned by the Government of Bangladesh in February 2005 after attacks on NGOs. But it struck back in mid-August when it detonated 500 small bombs at 300 locations throughout Bangladesh. The group re-organised and has committed several public murders in 2016 in northern Bangladesh as part of a wave of attacks on secularists.

Six of the top leaders of JMB were captured by the security forces in 2005. After being tried and convicted in court on March 29, 2007, four were executed for the killing of two judges and for the August 2005 bombings.

It was found that JMB had been receiving funds from officers at the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka. Visa Attach� Mazhar Khan was caught red-handed at a meeting with a JMB operative in April 2015, who said that they were involved in pushing large consignments of fake Indian currency into West Bengal and Assam. Second Secretary, Pakistan High Commission was expelled by Bangladesh on December 2015 after a JMB operative admitted to having received 30,000 Taka from her.

JMB�s Assam connection was unearthed when Ariful Islam, an operative of the outfit, was arrested from Babughat area of Kolkata. He hailed from Barpeta. He was one of the accomplices in the Bodh Gaya blast.

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