Burdwan module: Conflicting views between India, Bangladesh
There
appears
to
be
contradictory
views
about
the
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen,
Bangladesh
setting
up
the
Burdwan
module.
The
National
Investigating
Agency
in
its
chargesheet
is
likely
to
suggest
that
the
operation
was
aimed
at
carrying
out
terror
strikes
in
India,
while
Bangladesh
continues
to
maintain
that
the
intention
of
the
JMB
was
to
hit
at
the
Sheikh
Hasina
regime.
The NIA says that on interrogation of the all the accused persons it has learnt that they had been setting up modules to carry out strikes in West Bengal, Assam among other states.
Bangladesh on the other hand say that the JMB has only one intention and that is to shake up Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina and her government. They found it hard to set up modules in Bangladesh and hence chose West Bengal where they were readying a module to strike at the Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina.
On 2 October 2014 an explosion took place in a house in the Khagragarh locality of Burdwan in which two suspected terrorists were killed. The police had recovered 55 improvised explosive devices from the house and found that a full fledged module had been working here with an intention of carrying out a series of terror strikes.
What the NIA says about Burdwan?
The NIA says that in its chargesheet to be filed next month it would state that these people part of the Burdwan module were planning on setting up several terror cells in India. The intention was to provide aid to other terror groups and also carry out a series of attacks in India, including a major one in Kolkata.
The NIA says that the JMB is in a running battle against the Sheikh Hasina government, but that does not mean they would set up modules in India for that purpose. We have investigated that angle too and have found that the intention was only to destablise India.
Further the NIA points out that part of the chargesheet would also deal with how the JMB with the help of local modules raised the Burdwan module and also gathered funds locally.
The NIA also states that the investigation is an ongoing one and they could file additional chargesheets in the future. We have modules in Assam and Jharkhand also to be investigated and these things take time, the NIA official also maintained.
The view from Bangladesh on the JMB
Bangladesh however is firm and says that the operatives that they have questioned in connection with the same case say that the intention was to carry out strikes in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh investigators point out that the JMB was using India to build up their module. They even procured funds within India to fund the module. They wanted to prepare bombs in India and transport it to Bangladesh, investigations over there have also found.
It was Bangladesh which pointed out for the first time that money from Saradha too had been used by the JMB. They had said that Sudipta Sen had used the Jamaat to transfer some of his ill-gotten wealth to Bangladesh through a hawala route.
This claim was however denied by India and it was said that the Saradha link to the Burdwan blast has not been established as yet. The NIA too does not propose to speak about the Saradha link to Burdwan in the first chargesheet it would be filing.
Bangladesh wants extradition of all accused
Bangladesh would request India to extradite all the accused India has arrested in connection with the Burdwan blasts case. Bangladesh contends that the entire module was being set up to commit an offence in Bangladesh and hence all of them be extradited.
Sheikh Hasina is fully aware of the problem posed by the Jamaat and its subsidiaries. There are enough intelligence reports world over to suggest that the Jamaat is aiding groups such as the Al-Qaeda, SIMI and also outfits in the North East to destablise the region and set up a Greater Bangladesh ruled by the Sharia law.