On a day when Union Home Minister for State G Kishan Reddy expressed concern in Parliament over cross-border infiltration and use of religious-educational institutions as grooming ground for militants, the Special Task Force of Kolkata Police arrested a Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terrorist with alleged connection with the Bodh Gaya and Khagragarh blasts.
The STF officials on Tuesday said that they had arrested Abdul Rahim a JMB operative with Gaya blast links from Katwa subdivision in Burdwan district. A resident of Murshidabad district the terror mole is believed to the part of JMB’s Dhulian Module.
Dhulian is a block off Farakka bordering Murshiadabad and Malda districts. Rahim’s arrest comes days after the arrest of three terrorists from Howrah and Sealdah stations.
He was arrested following a tip-off, officials said adding he was an accomplice of Abdul Wahab and Maulana Yousuf who were currently in jail custody. The banned Bangla terror outfit is an electrical engineer and had elaborate knowledge of making explosives, sources said adding he was one of the accused linked to the January 2018, Bodh Gaya blasts where at least five people including two monks were injured.
An active member of Dhulian Module Rahim was entrusted with recruiting, motivating and even training the youth from a particular community sources said. Reddy had earlier said quoting intelligence reports that some madarsas in Murshidabad and Burdwan districts were being used to recruit, groom and indoctrinate terror moles.
Reacting to Tuesday’s development senior Bengal minister Partho Chatterjee said the Mamata Banerjee Government was serious about handling trans-border terror problems. “Our Government is serious about the problem which is why the STF is working and arresting terrorists so efficiently,” he said.
Meanwhile, in an apparent move to check trans-border infiltration the Central Government is known to have released Rs 316 crore State Government sources said.
Out of the whole amount Rs 84.40 crore had been cleared in 2018-19, sources said adding these funds would be used for border area development with a view to check cross-border infiltration.
