JMB planned to kill Bodo leaders, blast Assam: NIA

The outlawed terror outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had prepared a hit list of around 40 to 50 Bodo leaders to assassinate, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the Burdwan blast has revealed.

The outlawed terror outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had prepared a hit list of around 40 to 50 Bodo leaders to assassinate, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the Burdwan blast has revealed.

The hit list was prepared in retaliation to anti-Muslim riots in Assam in the last few years, according to the NIA probe.

“Assam was the immediate target of the JMB module detected after an accidental blast on October 2 in West Bengal’s Burdwan. Arrested accused have told counter-terror officials that a dossier-like hit-list of around 40 to 50 Bodo leaders was prepared by the JMB members in which their photographs and other details were mentioned. These Bodo leaders were to be killed in retaliation of anti-Muslim riots in the Bodoland Territorial Area District in the last two years,” said a Union home ministry official requesting anonymity.

Not only that, the official added, it seems that around 100 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) prepared by the Burdwan module were meant for Assam.

“Initially, the suspicion was that the IEDs were being transported to Bangladesh as claimed by some lower rank members of the module. But now, the NIA has reasons to believe that the IEDs were being sent to Assam may be through Bangladesh. The agency is yet to get concrete evidence in this regard as it has not recovered any IEDs in Assam so far,” said the official.

According to counter-terror sources, the larger of goal of the JMB is to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh with some bordering districts of Assam and Bengal included in it. But after a crackdown by the law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh, the JMB members took shelter in bordering districts of Assam and Bengal.