'Boma Mizan' held in India

Mizan alias Boma Mizan, a top bomb expert and leader of mainstream Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who was snatched by fellow militants from a prison van four years ago in Mymensingh, has finally been arrested in India.

India's Intelligence Bureau and elite anti-terror probe body, National Investigation Agency (NIA), arrested Jahidul Islam Mizan, 38, at Ramanagara near Bengaluru on Monday, according to an NIA press release.

The arrest of Mizan has brought relief among the counterterrorism officials in Bangladesh, as they believe they would now be able to get the total blueprint of JMB, of which a huge number of members are hiding in India.

“A big portion of mainstream JMB is absconding and hiding in India and we often share information with our Indian counterparts in this regard,” Mohibul Islam Khan, deputy commissioner of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star yesterday.

“We are hopeful we will now be able to solve the puzzle of a number of militant cases including Trishal prison van attack after interrogating Mizan in either India or Bangladesh by bringing him back,” Mohibul added.

Asked about bringing Mizan back, he said the police headquarters would look into the procedure.

Mizan's arrest has also brought relief among the Indian law enforcers, as he was wanted in the Burdwan blast case in West Bengal on October 2, 2014 and masterminded the Bodh Gaya blast in January 19 this year.

The NIA in the release said Mizan is the top leader of JMB in India.

Mizan was arrested following information squeezed from Abdul Karim alias Chhota, 19, of Elizabad district in Murshidabad and Mustafizur Rehman Shaheen alias Tuhin, 37, of Birbhum of West Bengal who were arrested by NIA on October 3, the statement read.

They were arrested on charge of the blast in the Buddhist pilgrimage centre Bodh Gaya in eastern state of Bihar, reports our Delhi correspondent.

Karim and Mustafizur were hiding in a camp of Bangla-speaking labourers in Malapuram district of Kerala after allegedly planting explosives in Bodh Gaya. “Incriminating” materials including circuit design of improvised explosive devices (IED) have been recovered from them, the NIA said.

According to sources in Bangladesh law-enforcement agencies, “Boma Mizan” is JMB's explosives expert who along with some other JMB operatives received training from RSO arms experts in a camp near Myanmar border in 2002.

Executed JMB chief Shaekh Abdur Rahman sent them for the training. In exchange for the firearms lessons, JMB trained Rohingyas to improvise and set off bombs.

Officials from police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and some intelligence agencies of Bangladesh quizzed Mizan, who was arrested by Rab on May 14, 2009.

Mizan and the others, who took training from RSO, later trained up JMB operatives across the country, said investigators.

Another investigator said Mizan had received explosives training from JMB bomb expert Shakil alias Mollah Omar and later taught around 25 JMB operatives how to make and detonate bombs. Omar was killed in a shootout with Rab and three of his family members in explosions meant to resist a raid on their hideout in Comilla on March 13, 2006.

He was trained by Shaekh Rahman, who had received training in explosives from militant organisations in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Earlier on February 23, 2014, in a well-orchestrated plan, an armed gang ambushed a prison van and snatched three convicted JMB militants including Boma Mizan in Trishal upazila of Mymensingh. A police constable was killed as the gang of 10-15, all masked, opened fire and hurled crude bombs at the prison van at Signboard point of Aminabari area.

Since then Mizan was hiding in India. The other two convicted JMB leaders were Rakib Hasan Russell alias Hafez Mahmud and Salauddin Ahmed alias Salehin.

However, police arrested Russell within five hours. He was later killed in a shootout with the law enforcers.

Salauddin, who was awarded death sentence, later declared himself as the chief of the mainstream JMB. He is also believed to have been hiding in India.

The investigators believe they will now be able to trace Salauddin after interrogating Mizan, who has been found guilty and awarded different terms of jail sentences by three courts.