NIA in Bangladesh to curb trans-boundary militancy

A team of India’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA) yesterday arrived in Dhaka on a four-day visit as part of a joint effort by Bangladesh and India to curb trans-boundary militancy and terrorism, police said.

Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the NIA team had been visiting to share information regarding the investigation of Burdwan blast case and about the alleged Bangladesh nationals charge-sheeted in the case.

The three-member NIA team, headed by Inspector General Sanjib Kumar Sinha, held a meeting with police officials today and supposed to sit with the officials of Rapid Action Battalion tomorrow.

“During today’s meeting, the NIA team sought some evidence regarding fugitive accused from their Bangladesh counterparts,” said a top police official wishing anonymity.

Earlier, they made a formal application to the foreign ministry in this regard, he added.

He said the evidence is important for the NIA to prove the charges against the accused in the court which will start trial of the Burdwan blast case soon following the submission of the charge-sheet.

On March 30, the NIA filed a charge sheet against 21 people, including four alleged Bangladeshi nationals, in the Burdwan blast case.

The Indian security agency suspected Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to be involved in the blast in a house at Khagragarh in Burdwan on October 2 last year, leaving two people dead.

The dead were Sakil Gazi, a Bangladeshi national who is the mastermind of a bomb-making module of the JMB, and his associate Karim Sheikh, according to the charge sheet.

The Bangladeshi nationals named in the charge sheet are Sheikh Rahamatullah, 19, alias Sajid alias Burhan Sekh, Talha Sheikh, 20, alias Talha Sekh, Kausar, 21, and Nasirullah alias Nasrulla alias Sahadat Seikh alias Sohail alias Hathkata.

Of them, only Rahamatullah was arrested by the NIA and the other three have been absconding.