BENGALURU: A special NIA court in Bengaluru convicted a Bangladeshi national, Jahidul Islam, for carrying out terrorist activities and sent him to rigorous imprisonment for seven years. Islam had operated from India with an organisation called Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), committing conspiracy, robbery, and raising funds for terrorism for which he was also charged a fine of Rs. 57,000.
The case traces its origins back to June 2019, when the Bengaluru City police filed a first information report after following leads from an NIA investigation into the 2014 Burdwan blast in West Bengal. Investigations revealed that Islam entered India illegally in 2014 with JMB leader Salauddin Salehin after they succeeded in escaping Bangladeshi custody over their roles in the 2005 serial blasts.
In India, Islam masterminded several incidents, including the October 2014 Burdwan blast and the 2018 Bodhgaya explosion. After the Burdwan incident, Islam fled to Bengaluru, where he recruited young men from West Bengal and Assam to advance JMB’s agenda. He also orchestrated four robberies in Bengaluru in 2018, using the stolen funds to procure weapons, establish hideouts, and conduct training for terrorist activities.
Eleven people have been convicted in cases connected to this probe till date. Efforts are still on to trace the other absconding accused including Salehin as the authorities continue their investigation. The sentence underlines the commitment of the NIA towards cross-border terrorism and dismantling of the terror networks operating in India.
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