GUWAHATI, Oct 20 � Jamaat-ul-Mujaheedin, Bangladesh (JMB) operatives in India managed to send at least four consignments of bombs to Bangladesh in recent times to indulge in acts of violence in the neighbouring country.
Highly placed sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told The Assam Tribune that during the investigation into the Burdwan blast case, the security agencies came to know that the JMB operatives in India were involved in making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) with locally available materials and even trained youths from Assam and West Bengal to make IEDs.
Sources said as many as 55 bombs were recovered from the house where the accidental blast took place in Burdwan, killing a hardcore JMB operative. During investigations, the personnel of the investigating agencies including the National Investigation Agency (NIA) managed to recover more than 40 bombs from another house. The bombs recovered have already been destroyed.
Sources said that during the course of the investigation, the agencies came to know that the main aim of the JMB was to prepare bombs in India and send them to Bangladesh to indulge in acts of violence against the Government. Questioning of the arrested persons also revealed that at least four consignments of bombs were sent to Bangladesh. However, it is still not known how many bombs were sent in each consignment.
MHA sources pointed out that as the Government of Bangladesh launched a major crackdown against the JMB, the outfit has been trying desperately to hit back against the Government and sought a safe hideout in West Bengal. It has also come to the notice of the investigating agencies that JMB operatives from Bangladesh came to India to impart training to youths from West Bengal and Assam in at least three Madrassas in Burdwan and Murshidabad. The JMB operatives of Bangladesh did not come with any weapon and explosive and the IEDs were made with locally available materials in India.
Sources revealed that so far, the JMB has not indulged in any act of violence in India, but the Indian security agencies were aware of the plan of the outfit to open a unit in West Bengal for a long time and only after the accidental blast, the activities of the outfit came to their notice.
It may be mentioned here that the JMB was formed in the late 1990s and the outfit came into prominence following serial blasts in Bangladesh in the early part of the last decade. The outfit was banned by the Government of Bangladesh in 2005 and at least six main members were arrested, of whom, four were given death sentence.
