Three Assam Jihadis Among 19 Convicted By NIA Court

GUWAHATI: Three jihadis from Assam are among the 19 convicted by the NIA Court, Kolkata on Wednesday in connection with the Burdwan blast case of 2014. The 19 convicts included four Bangladeshi nationals. The three convicts from Assam have been identified as – Shaikhul Islam Khan, Md Shahanur Alam and Sahidul Islam, all hailing from Barpeta district.

On October 2, 2014 a powerful bomb (IED) blast took place on the first floor of a rented house in the busy Khagragarh locality of Burdwan district in West Bengal. The IED accidentally went off at the time of its making by some members of a banned terrorist organization --Jamat-ul-Mujaheedin of Bangladesh (JMB). The rented house was occupied by the members of JMB, ostensibly for burkha stitching though in reality it was being used for nefarious activity of bomb making, an NIA release said. While some of the accused succumbed to their injuries due to the blast, an accused survived with grievous injuries. The case was initially registered by the West Bengal Police which was subsequently taken over by NIA for investigation. Investigation by NIA revealed a conspiracy by JMB (Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh) to radicalize, recruit and provide training in arms and explosives to its members in India as well as to commit terrorist acts and wage war against the Governments of India and Bangladesh. A large number of IEDs, explosives, hand grenades, training videos were recovered during the investigation of the case. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced on August 30, 2019 by the Special NIA Court, Kolkata.

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