Assam in Jihadi terror shadow

NIA chargesheet includes two Assam men among 21 med

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, March 30: The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has established its terror network in the states of West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand and was engaged in recruitment, radicalisation and training of vulnerable youths in a systematic and organised manner, to overthrow the Awami League regime Sheikh Hasi Wajed in Dhaka and replace it with a hard-line Sharia-based Islamic rule, the tiol Investigation Agency said on Monday.

Filing a chargesheet in a special court in Kolkata, the NIA med 21 people, formally charged with involvement in the Burdwan blast case.

The twenty one people formally chargesheeted include four Bangladeshi tiols and two from Assam - Md. Sahanur Alom, a resident of Chatla village of Sharthebari and Shaikul Islam Khan alias Swaiful Islam Khan alias Abdullah, a resident of Kahikuchi village in Barpeta.

The recruitment, radicalisation and training of vulnerable Indian youths was undertaken by members of JMB for preparing a large group of Indians based on their common religious and linguistic identity, primarily in the Indian states bordering Bangladesh, to join the JMB and utilise them for the movement to overthrow the existing democratic government in Bangladesh, the NIA said in the chargesheet.

During the investigation, the NIA also found a network of terrorist training camps at selected madrasas and other hideouts where selected youths were indoctrited into violent jihadi ideology as well as trained for terrorist acts by using explosives and firearms.

“So far 32 persons have been arraigned as accused persons. Out of these, 16 have been arrested so far. Against two arrested suspects, no evidence was found their having any link with the crime. More than 250 witnesses were examined and around 100 searches were conducted in large number of places across the states of West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand, leading to seizures of huge volumes of documents, computers, explosives, chemicals, arms & ammunition and other incrimiting materials,” an NIA spokesman said.

The accused persons have been individually charged for commission of various crimil offences under Sections 16, 17, 18, 20 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, as well as Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 of IPC and Section 25 of Arms Act, Section 5 of Explosive Substances Act, Section 12 of Passports Act and Section 14 of Foreigners Act. These offences include offence of being member of a terrorist gang, commission of terrorist acts and conspiracy for terrorist acts, recruitment, funding of terrorist gang, organising terrorist training camps, possession of arms, ammunition and explosive substances, committing forgery and possessing/using false documents and violations under the Foreigners Act and Passports Act.

An accidental blast took place in a house in Khagragarh in Burdwan district on October 2 last year, killing two JMB militants and injuring another. The NIA took up the probe on October 10.