Remanded in 14-day police custody; JMB leaders visited Nalbari madrasas for training
The Assam Police nabbed one of the key accused of the Burdwan blast Shahnur Alom from the Nalbari district of the State late on Friday night. He was produced in the court of the Kamrup CJM on Saturday and remanded in 14-day police custody.
It is a prize catch as Shahnur was a motivational trainer of the terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) till the Assam Police zeroed in on his relative’s house in Nalbari district from where he was arrested.
Informing this at a media briefing, Assam DGP Khagen Sarma said that the arrest was possible on a tip-off from a local. Police are now on the lookout for five other top members of the jehadi outfit who were trying to set up base and indoctrinate more people. The Assam Police on Saturday also confirmed that several top JMB leaders from Bangladesh had visited at least one madrasa in the State and conducted some motivational training there.
But the DGP of Assam Police also denied all madrasas having links with the jehadi movement. “Some have been used as cover by jehadis in the State. But these are isolated incidents and not all madrasas can be blamed,” Sarma said.
Sarma said a Special Operation Unit (SOU) of the Assam Police arrested the most wanted criminal on Friday evening from larkuchi village under Mukalmua police station in the district. Shahnur, who had been absconding for more than a month now, had a reward of
`5 lakh on his head, announced by the National Investigating Agency (NIA), the Central investigating agency probing the October 2 Burdwan blast. With this, the total number of arrests in Assam in connection with the Burdwan blast has gone up to 10. Alam has been charged under IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 121 (waging, attempting to wage war or abetting war against Government of India).
Shahnur is a key operative of the Bangladesh-based jehadi outfit JMB. Talking about Shahnur’s involvement with JMB, Sarma said, “He is not an expert at operational training or militant activities in terms of use of arms or weapons. But he is an expert at motivational training and that is far more dangerous.”
Shahnur’s wife Sujina Begum - also a trained member of the jehadi outfit - was nabbed by Assam Police last month. After the blast, Shahnur was in hiding in several States. He, however, did not cross the border into Bangladesh after the blast, DGP clarified.
“We are now looking for five more members of the outfit. We have already identified them and they are likely to be arrested soon,” he said. These also include four women members of the outfit. About the prize catch, DGP said, “Shahnur is one of the important members of the JMB module in Assam. He had maintained a good rapport with the top leadership and is directly linked to the Burdwan blast.”
With paramedical training in dentistry, Alam was given the name ‘Iliyas’ in JMB and received “motivational training” in Assam and West Bengal, the DGP said. Alam, alias Doctor hails from Chatala village in Barpeta district and is alleged to have arranged money for the Indian modules of JMB. “While we are looking into some NGOs, which might have monetary transactions with the jehadis, no serious money transaction with jehadis took place in Assam,” Sarma said.
The JMB had been trying to expand in Assam and West Bengal after being banned in Bangladesh. While they have succeeded in setting up base in West Bengal, they have not been very successful in Assam so far. Sarma said the outfit has some presence in Dhubri, Nalbari and Barpeta districts of Assam. “We have records that the top leadership of the jehadi outfit came to Assam after JMB was banned in Bangladesh and married local girls here and settled in West Bengal. They have been
continuing the operations of the activities from there,” he said. When asked if JMB had a link with Pakistani agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Sarma said, “With a pan-Islamic militancy, there is always a connection with ISI.”
The indigenous Muslims of Assam have not supported such activities, added the DGP as members of the JMB and other jehadi outfits had to face opposition from local Muslims in different places of the State in the recent past. The DGP also denied the links of all madrasas with the jehad movement and said some of these institutions have been used as cover by jehadis in some places of the State. “There are isolated incidents but one should not blame all the madrasas,” he said.