West Bengal: No substantial headway in Burdwan blast probe

New Delhi, Nov 2: Exactly a month after the Burdwan blast in which two suspected terrorists were killed, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) appears to have made no substantial headway and is hot on the trail of the absconding accused.

After an initial head start by the central intelligence agency post October two blast inside a house at Khagragarh locality of Burdwan district, a majority of the accused are still on the run after managing to give a slip first to West Bengal police and later to the sleuths of NIA.

Sources privy to the investigation said no substantial evidence has emerged so far to give any clue about the exact plans of the terror group -- Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

The JMB was stated to be working on a plot to target Bangladesh government leaders. The main accused, Sajid, who is believed to be the brain behind the Burdwan module, is understood to have managed to give a slip to West Bengal police.

On Oct 2, the blast took place inside a house at Khagragarh in which one person Shakil Ahmed died on the spot and another person Sovan Mandal died in hospital.

They both were suspected to have terror links. Another person – Hasan Saheb – who was also injured in the blast later gave some information to the sleuths of central intelligence agencies that led to arrest of two women including wife of one of the dead men and six people from Assam, the sources said.

However, after initial help in the arrests, neither the state police nor the NIA could make any headway in the case with instances of alleged failure in nabbing some of the accused, the sources said.

The NIA, which was being assisted by the state police was unable to prepare sketches of either Sajid and another suspected Bangladeshi national Nasirullah who is also believed to have managed to escape the clutches of investigators.

Only two people arrested from Assam could give some information about the incident which included claims that Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) could have been smuggled into the neighbouring Bangladesh. However, the two could not provide any information about how explosives were transported.

PTI