The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested a Bangladeshi national, who is a key accused in the October 2014 Burdwan blast and the January 2018 planting of IEDs at Bodh Gaya.
Mohammed Jahidul Islam (38) alias Bomaru Mizan alias Kausar, an operative of the Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), was arrested from Ramanagara near Bengaluru and produced before a special court for NIA cases, Bengaluru, which granted five days of transit remand. He will now be produced before the special NIA court, Patna, an NIA statement said.
Kausar, who awaits death sentence in Bangladesh in three separate cases, was one of the key accused in the serial blasts in 2005 in 63 districts in Bangladesh.
A resident of Melandaha in Jamalpur district of Bangladesh, Mizan got involved in JMB activities when he was a student of Tejgaon Polytechnic College in Dhaka.
In February 2014, Mizan, along with his ‘boss’ Salahuddin Salehin, was ‘freed’ during an ambush on a prison van carrying them at Trishal in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. They crossed over to West Bengal soon after. Salehin (41) too awaits death sentence in Bangladesh and is a most-wanted in India.
The Burdwan blast on October 2, 2014 blew the lid off JMB in at least four districts of West Bengal as it was planning to overthrow the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh.
{{/usCountry}}The Burdwan blast on October 2, 2014 blew the lid off JMB in at least four districts of West Bengal as it was planning to overthrow the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh.
{{/usCountry}}Referring to Kausar’s involvement in the attempted blast at Bodh Gaya, NIA said, “He is the mastermind… On his directions Mustafizur Rehman @ Shahin, who is his close associate, had arranged and assembled all the explosives for the incident.”
The statement said Kausar’s house was searched and some electronic devices besides traces of explosives have been recovered.