India bans JMB

India last night banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) which was blamed for several terror attacks in the country.

In a notification, the home ministry said the terror outfit has “committed and promoted acts of terrorism and has been engaged in radicalisation and recruitment of youths for terrorist activities in India.”

“Therefore, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Hindustan and all its mani-festations have been inserted in the First Schedule to the Unlawful Activ-ities (Prevention) Act, 1967,” the notification said.

The listing under the First Schedule of the UAPA means the outfit is now a banned organisation in India, a home ministry official said.

Indian security agencies have established the JMB’s links with bomb blasts at Burdwan in West Bengal on October 2, 2014 and Bodh Gaya in Bihar on January 19, 2018.

The police in Assam also said they found involvement of the JMB in five cases registered by them and a total of 56 accused belonging to JMB were arrested.

According to the home ministry notification, the JMB came into existence in 1998 with the objective of establishing a Caliphate through Jihad.

The JMB was engaged in recruitment and raising funds for terrorist activ-ities, procurement of explosive chemicals and assembling of improvised explosive device, it said.

Investigations have also revealed JMB’s plan of making permanent ba-ses within 10 kilometres along the India-Bangladesh border in several districts of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura and plans of spreading its network in South India with an overarching motive to establish Caliphate in the Indian subcontinent, the notification added.