'India unearths JMB plot to kill Hasina'
India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) has uncovered a suspected plot by banned militant group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and carry out a coup, three senior Indian security officials told Reuters yesterday.
Dhaka did not comment directly on the assertions that Hasina had been the target of a plot, but said it had tightened security on the border with India, the news agency reported from New Delhi.
The outlawed JMB also planned to assassinate BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, said the Indian officials requesting anonymity. They did not explain how the militants planned to carry out the assassinations.
"The strategy was to hit the political leaders of the country and demolish the democratic infrastructure of Bangladesh," said a senior Indian Home (interior) Ministry official on condition of anonymity.
"This was all being planned on Indian soil and we could have been blamed if there was an attack."
India has arrested at least six people tied to the coup plot, according to the NIA, the agency investigating the October 2 Burdwan blast case.
New Delhi has also sought information from Dhaka about two JMB militants -- Asif Adnan, 26, and Fazle Elahi Tanjil, 24 -- who were arrested in Dhaka recently, reports New Delhi correspondent of The Daily Star.
Their interrogation may lead the Indian probe agencies to locate at least 120 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that were transported to Bangladesh in four consignments from India, Indian intelligence sources said.
The October 2 explosion killed two persons -- Shakil Ahmed and Suvon Mandal alias Subhan -- reportedly residents of Bangladesh, when they were making IEDs at a house in Burdwan, West Bengal.
The NIA has already found that all accused and their associates are members of JMB.
The JMB detonated nearly 500 bombs almost simultaneously on one day in 2005 across Bangladesh, including in the capital, Dhaka. Its militants later carried out suicide attacks on several courthouses, killing 25 people and injuring hundreds.
Earlier this year, gunmen opened fire and tossed bombs at a security van carrying members of the group on the way to court.
"The group was a very serious threat in 2005 and up to 2008, but they have now been very badly decimated," said Ajay Sahini, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi that monitors militant groups across South Asia.
"The group's leadership has been eroded, which means their planning capability and capacities for execution has been seriously limited."
Indian official sources yesterday said they would hand over a dossier to the Bangladesh government for preventive steps and necessary actions needed to be taken by Dhaka in order to counter the JMB threat.
When the Indian side has taken seriously the operatives of Bangladeshi militants on its soil and decided to neutralise the element, Dhaka has done little other than sending a note verbal to share information about the Burdwan blast.
Regarding the Burdwan blast, the home ministry has yet to send any officials to India to learn about the India's claims and verify nationality of the alleged militants.
Officials at the home and foreign ministries said they didn't have a reply to the note verbal they sent on October 8.
Contacted, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shariar Alam, said, “We will take initiatives once we get detailed information from the Indian side. We hope we will get that soon.”
He said the government would decide whether the two countries could carry out joint drives against the militants or what kind of cooperation Bangladesh could seek from India in this regard.
Asked whether Bangladesh could send a team to inquire about the blast and verify the identity of the arrested persons, he said, “We can't jump on it based on media reports and claims of any country. The Indian side is working on it. The home minister of the country has said they would share the details soon.”
State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan also told reporters at his secretariat office yesterday that Dhaka was yet to learn anything officially from the Indian side regarding the alleged involvement of Bangladeshi militants in the blast.
“But we are not sitting idle as you know a number of militants were arrested in the past few days.”
Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, has told the media that some leaders of different militant outfits have taken shelter in different places of West Bengal in the face of intensified drives in Bangladesh.
The fugitive militants frequently enter Bangladesh, hold meetings and then go back to their Indian hideouts, he told several media briefings in the last few months.
Meanwhile, India's National Security Adviser Doval on Monday held a meeting with West Minister Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata to discuss the blast.
At the meeting, Doval explained to Mamata the scale and nature of the conspiracy being hatched by JMB to target Bangladesh government from Indian soil, sources said.
Mamata admitted lapses at the initial stage of the probe into the blast and expressed her displeasure against the local police for the manner in which they had handled the case, sources said.
She was particularly upset with the local police for their inability to recover a sack containing 40 improvised hand grenades which were located by the NIA nearly a week after the explosion.
Besides, the key mastermind of the whole plot, Sheikh Kausar, could manage to flee from the area apparently due to lackadaisical approach of West Bengal Police, according to the sources.
With JMB suspected to be having a pan-India presence, the sources said, JMB modules in West Bengal had been active for the last three years and the house where the blast took place was rented in July from a person who is a supporter of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress party.
So far, 10 people have been arrested, including six in Assam state, in connection with the blast. The NIA is looking for at least 30 more suspects.
The BBC Bangla yesterday reported that Indian intelligence officials and West Bengal administration learnt about the terrorist network in West Bengal at least nine years ago, according to two cables leaked by WikiLeaks.
One of the cables was sent by US officials to Washington on August 4, 2005 after their discussions with the then West Bengal home secretary. Another cable, dated November 16, 2005, was dispatched after talking to senior officials in law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the Indian state.
The cables said terrorist groups, like JMB, from Bangladesh were establishing dens in West Bengal and were building network at some unapproved madrasas there. There was instigation of Pakistan's spy agency ISI.
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