Jihad Situation in Bengal. Three JMB operatives arrested in Kolkata. Many untraced!

At least 15-40 JMB operatives entered India in last three months, 10 of them ventured to Kashmir and rest stayed in Bengal.

Local Muslim linkman in Kolkata being a sympathizer helped JMB men with lodging to run network of Jihad in West Bengal.

Sayani Das | HENB | Kolkata | July 13, 2021::  The module of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh—the Bengaldesh Islamic terror outfit—which was busted by the Kolkata Police Special Task Force (STF ) at a rented home in on Sunday, was suspected to have local “linkmen” who provided logistical support to the members, police said. Though police claimed that the module might have been active for more than two months, it is not clear how much old the module in fact.

The police interrogated the arrested accused for hours. The accrued suspicions were based on interrogations of the arrested accused— Naziur Rahaman Pavel (22) alias Joyram Byapari, Mikail Khan alias Sk Sabbir (30) and Rabiul Islam (22) — who claimed to have been in touch with Haridevpur resident Selim Munshi for last two-three months. Selim passed himself off as an umbrella and fruit trader and had kept changing his address, moving from one rented home to another, but never left Haridevpur for the past one-and-a-half decades. Selim is missing. It was Selim, who had arranged rooms for Pavel, Sabbir and Islam, whom he had introduced as his “friends from Murshidabad”, raising concern he might have ensured safe passage for other JMB extremists. . One of the three were related to Selim Munshi, police said.

The probe revealed another “linkman”, Sk Shakeel, had promised to get Aadhaar cards for the three. Shakeel, too, has gone missing. “It is certain the three arrested men received help locally,” said an STF officer. “Each phone number noted down in a seized diary is being checked.” The literature is mostly in Bengali, suggesting the activities were limited to Bengal.

Though the arrested said they had been living there for 45 days, locals said at least Sabbir had been around for over eight months. “He claims to be here since June but many have seen him for longer,” claimed Jan Mohammad, a local. Sabbir was the social media expert, his primary job being recruitment and arranging funds. “He would always be online,” said an officer.

Pavel was a relative of JMB ideologue Al-Amin, who, along with JMB commander Nahid Tasnim, was currently in Kashimpur jail in Bangladesh.

Police said the accused came to Kolkata with two objectives: to raise funds and expand the organization. “Several JMB leaders are jailed in Bangladesh and the gang needs funds to release them. We are questioning the arrested to find if they were planning a strike,” said an officer. Bangladesh CounterTerrorism unit had said in April the main JMB had set up a robbery wing to raise funds. STF said it was grilling Pavel whether he had conducted a recce for a robbery.

Though, Kolkata and WB Police have marked these nabbing of  three JMB activists at the outskirt of Kolkata, it is not known how this Jihadi network is deep rooted in the state under the Islamic indulgence of the ruling party TMC and its Queen of appeasement WB CM Mamata Banerjee.

Superficial investigations of this case will draw the situation of further progression of JMB outfits in West Bengal for using this state as sleeper cell.

JMB network which was first traced sporadically after the Khagragar blast in Burdwan in 2014 in a camouflage of Burkha selling racket and Madrasa book supplies. Now, the new modules of JMB are found in umbrella making and fruits and mosquito net selling to be masqueraded.

Prima facie it may come up as a ‘robbery racket’ or a ‘racket of JMB fund rising’; but the JMB literatures in Bengali  as recovered from the hideouts of the JMB operators in Haridevpur clearly hint a major Jihadi operation in Bengal by attacking majority ‘Kaffir’ Hindu people  and their temples in Bengal to destroy the surviving communal harmony in the state.

Zee News Bangla Portal published the pic. of JMB operative Selim Munshi, who fled the scene before police arrested others.

STF Joint Commissioner V Solomon Nesakumar said he had received information about “active JMB terrorists” from Bangladesh being spotted in Haridevpur. The police monitored the activities of the three for the last few days before arresting them. The accused used to follow several terrorist organisations on social media, according to officials.

The STF said it recovered mobile phones, two religious books, Jihadi leaflet and posters, an incriminating diary and an Indian identity card from the accused.

The police claimed that the diary recovered from them mentions the names of many active JMB operatives and their mobile numbers. The police also claimed to have found suspicious WhatsApp chats on the mobiles that were seized.

The police said the accused illegally crossed the border about a month ago, and arrived here. Asked if they had links to the two suspected Ansar Ghazwat-ul Hind operatives arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in Lucknow during the day, an officer said, “We are checking that angle also.”

But, in a worrying development, the Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force (STF) said on Monday that at least 15 terrorists (another sources tells that STF sensed that number to 40 at least) belonging to the Bangladesh-based Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) are believed to have infiltrated into the country.

An STF officer said the JMB operatives likely entered West Bengal from Bangladesh earlier this year. Ten of these operatives are thought to have travelled to various parts of India, including Jammu and Kashmir, the officer added.

The JMB had carried out a terror attack at a popular cafe in Dhaka in 2016. It killed 22 people, including 17 foreigners. According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the JMB is trying to spread its influence in India.

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Inputs from ENS & Agencies.