Role of shooter Tara Shahdeo’s ‘con’ husband in procuring explosives from Pakur being probed
The focus of the probe into the Burdwan blast case has shifted to Pakur in Jharkhand as the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operatives had procured explosives from the place, which hosts a large number of black stone quarries.
The leads gathered by the agencies have also pointed out that Rakibul Hasan Khan, alias Ranjit Kohli accused in a “love jehad” case and allegedly involved in hawala transactions for bureaucrats and politicians could have been involved in the terror plot.
Rakibul Hasan Khan is suspected to have links with the larger terror network of JMB and the agencies are probing whether he was also involved in recruitment of gullible Muslim women for jehadi activities for the terror group banned in Bangladesh, Intelligence sources said.
Rakibul Hasan Khan was recently in the news for allegedly converting national-level shooter Tara Shahdeo to Islam and torturing her after their marriage. Khan reportedly had a nexus with high officials in the State bureaucracy and Government including with Jharkhand Minister Hazi Hussain Ansari. The role of Ansari in the possible insidious activities will also be looked into, the sources said.
As many as 36 mobile phone SIMs and laptops were recovered from Khan’s possession by the police during the investigation of the “love jehad” case and he reportedly supplied girls to high-profile people in the State. Pakur is rich in black stone reserves with over 600 high quality stone chip quarries which use explosives to blast the rocks.
The JMB-run IED factories in West Bengal are suspected to have procured explosives from the area through Khan who is known to have developed extensive connections in the bureaucracy and the State Government.
The agencies are now ascertaining if part of the black money allegedly transacted by Khan through the hawala network was diverted for terror funding, besides finding out the larger jehadi design and the support system behind it in the State. Khan’s linkages with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India will also be probed, the sources said.
Different possibilities are being explored as the NIA that is probing the Burdwan blast case continues to be on the trail of the 12 absconding accused people including the Bangladeshi masterminds of JMB and chief of the Burdwan module Sajid against whom the investigative agency has announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh.
The interrogation of arrested accused Razira Biwi, Alina Biwi and Badrul Aalam has revealed that they were tasked only for selecting hideouts, fabricating IEDs, recruiting cadres and indoctrinating them for jehadi designs.
The arrested persons also told the interrogators that JMB had plans to create a terror network in West Bengal and Assam to carry out armed struggle and build an Islamic state in Bangladesh and three districts of West Bengal including Murshidabad, Nadia and Malda.