Bengal has averted a major terror attack because of a timely action taken by the Special Task Force of Kolkata Police which is entrusted with the task of controlling terror activities. Promptly acting on a tip-off, the STF on Tuesday arrested four Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants from Howrah and Sealdah stations, sources said.

The police have arrested Md Jiaur Rehman and M Rashid with incriminating documents, mobile phones, laptops and other accessories. These Bangladeshi nationals, reportedly having ISIS links, were arrested from the Sealdah Railway station where they were waiting for the arrival of some of their contact men. With the arrests, a “grand operation plan has been busted,” a senior officer said, adding the mobile phones contained maps and formula to construct fabricate bombs.

The other two persons, Md Rabiul and Sahin Alam, were arrested from Howrah station, sources said. The former was from Birbhum district while the latter belonged to Bangladesh and had crossed over to India. The two persons lived for sometime at Uluberia off Howrah sources said.

They were in touch with some person called Alauddin who was still at large.

The terrorists were carrying videos and some jehadi texts that were being used to lure the youth into their organsiation. The arrested quartet was produced in the Bankshall Court from where they were remanded to two weeks’ police custody.

Senior officers of the STF were interrogating the terror operatives police said adding their main motto was to spread the message of ISIS and JMB and overthrow the Indian and Bangladesh Governments so as to invoke Sharia laws in these two countries making them a part of the Islamic caliphate.

The police and the NIA had busted a vast network of JMB in 2014 when a bomb  accidentally went off at Khagragarh in Burdwan district on October 2 that year.

Subsequent investigations revealed a grand plan to carry out subversive activities in Bangladesh from this side of the border. The JMB was operating from a large number of madarsas situated in Bibhum, Nadia, Burdwan, Malda and Burdwan sources said.