Real Musa still at large

Police headquarters yesterday said the Musa arrested in India was not the Musa accused in the Mahmuda Khanam Mitu murder case.

Earlier in the day, two top officials of police headquarters and Rapid Action Battalion said Kamrul Islam Sikdar Musa, an accused in the murder case, was arrested in India around a month ago.

The full name of the Musa captured in India on July 4 is Mohammed Masiuddin alias Musa.        

A three-member team of Bangladesh Police along with officials of National Investigating Agency (NIA) of India yesterday interrogated terror suspect Masiuddin arrested last month for his alleged link to terror groups like Islamic State (IS) and Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Masiuddin, who has a close link with top Bangladeshi militant Mohammad Solaiman, was arrested at Viswabharati Fast Passenger train at Burdwan station on July 4 by West Bengal CID, reported our New Delhi and Kolkata correspondents.

A Kolkata court yesterday placed Masiuddin on a two-day NIA remand. 

An NIA official said three officials from Bangladesh Police reached the NIA office yesterday morning.

On June 26, Motaleb Mia Wasim, another accused in the Mitu murder case, reportedly told a magistrate that Kamrul Islam Sikdar Musa hired seven to eight hit men, including him, for killing Mitu, wife of Superintendent of Police Babul Akter.

Mitu was murdered in Chittagong on June 5.

A source at NIA East Regional Headquarters said the officers from Bangladesh would look into Masiuddin's connection with Solaiman, an important member of the JMB module in Bangladesh, who had played a crucial role in the recent terror attack on Holey Artisan café in Gulshan.

"Solaiman is believed to have played a crucial role in the Dhaka terror attack... And after grilling Masiuddin, it was found that he was quite close to Solaiman. So, the team of Bangladesh Police officers have arrived here to know more about his link to Solaiman," the source said.

Masiuddin had met Solaiman at an event in Malda four months ago, the source added.

During interrogation by the state CID, NIA and the IB, Masiuddin had revealed his connection to top leaders of at least two terror groups and admitted that he had been assigned to spread their tentacles in West Bengal and other places in the eastern part of the country.

A resident of Labhpur in West Bengal's Birbhum, Masiuddin's phone records showed that he had communicated several times with people from Syria, Iraq and Bangladesh.

Masiuddin was using a mobile application to keep in touch with top leaders of terror groups in those three countries, CID sleuths had said.

Two of his accomplices Kallu Sheikh and Amin Sheikh were also arrested by Indian investigating agencies.

Masiuddin, who was staying in Tamil Nadu's Tiruppur with his family, visited West Bengal last month after almost six years.