Sajid alias Sheikh Rahmatullah, the terror mastermind of the Burdwan module on Sunday conceded before the court that he was indeed involved in criminal activities and was jailed in Bangladesh before crossing into India a couple of years ago in search of safe refugee.
The senior Hijbul Mujahideen (Bangladedsh) terrorist fondly called by his cronies as Borda or big brother is also a central committee member of the JuB intelligence sources quoting him said. He also told the court that he had slipped into India because he wanted to survive.
“Aami banchte esechi (I have come to survive)” he reportedly told the court explaining the reason why he crossed the borders after being chased out by the Bangla police. A district court hearing the case on Sunday remanded him in NIA custody till November 20.
A 33-year-old Sajid who was on Saturday evening arrested by the Bidhan Nagar Police from near the Netaji Subhas International Airport following tip-off from the NIA had reportedly told his captors that he was helped by one Burhan Sheikh in procuring voters’ ID Card, PAN and ration cards etc.
NIA sources said he was in charge of four modules of Burdwan, Birbhum, Nadia and Murshidabad and that after the accidental blast on October 2 that killed two of his mates he left for safer pastures and since he could not move into Bangladesh he slipped into Jharkhand.
Before the blast however he lived at lalgola Madarsa in Muktinagar in Murshidabad district from where he supervised the jihadi works including recruitment, training and indoctrination of the modules apart from arranging for funds.
Burhan Sheikh who had arranged for his stay in India reportedly was the main courier of funds and was in fact scheduled to deliver him the same at Bidhannagar on Saturday night, sources said adding he had come back from Jharkhand where he was lying low as he had exhausted his money.
“While he had fled with Rs 1.5 lakh finally when he came to Kolkata to collect funds he had only Rs 56 left on him” NIA advocates said. “We hope to get more information and their plans after interrogating the accused” said an NIA advocate.
The Burdwan blast had not only opened the lid off the big plan being hatched by the Bangla terror groups to assassinate Bangladesh Prime Minister Sk Hasina and its Opposition leader Khaleda Zia but it also brought to light the bigger nefarious designs of the jihadis involving, Bengal, parts of Bihar and Jharkhand and the entire North East.