NIA Apprehends Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Operative From Agartala

New Delhi: In a breakthrough in the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) India Bengaluru module case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday said it has arrested one of its operatives from Agartala.

A senior NIA official said JMB operative Najir Sheikh aka Patla Anas, 25, a resident of Murshidabad in West Bengal was arrested from Agartala on Monday.

The official said he was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate in Agartala on Tuesday and was brought to Bengaluru on transit warrant.

According to NIA, Najir last year was staying in Bengaluru along with other members of JMB such as Jahidul Islam, Nazrul Islam, Asif Ikbal, Arif and others.

An NIA officer said Najir Sheikh and his associates from JMB were actively involved in raising funds by committing dacoities in Bengaluru. “As part of conspiracy they had set up their hideouts at various places in Bengaluru and made preparations to carry out subversive activities by procuring material and equipment for making IEDs,” he said.

The arrest of the JMB operative comes days after the anti-terror probe agency in July this year busted a sleeper module of the proscribed JMB in Karnataka and recovered hand grenades and raw material for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) among other material.

The crackdown on a cell that operated within the jurisdiction of the Soladevenahalli police station in north Bengaluru comes five years after the group carried out the 2014 blasts in West Bengal’s Burdwan district in which two people were injured.

In late June this year, the NIA got the first breakthrough as it arrested Habibur Rehman Sheikh, a key figure in JMB, that revealed key aspects of the group’s operations. The probe agency then launched a covert operation against the group in Karnataka.

Later based on the disclosure of Sheikh, the NIA recovered five fabricated hand grenades, a timer device, three electric circuits, suspected explosive substance and various components for making IEDs and rockets. (IANS)

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