Top security chiefs visit Burdwan blast site, meet Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata/Burdwan (WB), Oct 27: The country's security and intelligence chiefs including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval today descended on the blast site at Burdwan in West Bengal and later met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, conveying that the Centre has taken the terror act seriously.

Banerjee on her part assured the Centre of all cooperation to fight terrorism and promised to work together.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday said it had completed initial phase of probe in the case pertaining to the bomb blast in a house at Khagragarh village in Burdwan district and that it indicated the involvement of the cadre of terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Bangladesh(JMB). Prakash Mishra, Special Secretary, Union Home Ministry, who was also part of the team that met Banerjee, said the Centre had taken the Burdwan blast seriously, describing it as an "issue of terror". "We discussed the issue with the chief minister.The chief minister assured us to extend all cooperation and work together with the Centre to fight terrorism," Mishra told reporters after the meeting with Banerjee which lasted over an hour at the state secretariat.

Doval, Mishra, National Security Guards(NSG) DG J N Chowdhury and two senior intelligence officers from the Centre and the state that included Intelligence Bureau director Syed Asif Ibrahim first met the chief minister. State Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra, Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee, state DGP GMP Reddy and city police commissioner Surajit Kar Purakayastha later joined the deliberations.

"The investigation to Burdwan blast will be taken to its logical end," Mishra said, adding that the Centre and the state were together on the issue of fighting terrorism. "Very senior officers of both the Centre and the state are here. We have resolved to work together on this issue," he said.

Asked what prompted NSA Doval's visit to West Bengal, Mishra said, "He is a senior police officer. He is here to give a professional touch to the blast investigation." To another question, he said, "We are also here for improving the capacity of the West Bengal Police and security agencies to handle this kind of situation."

Earlier in the day, the NSA visited the blast site in Burdwan and assessed the progress of the investigation. The Chiefs of NIA, NSG and the IB accompanied Doval during the over 30-minute visit to the house at Khagragarh where the blast took place on October 2, the police said.

Doval and the three top officials visited the room where the bomb exploded killing two suspected terrorists. They also went to the room which had served as laboratory of the suspected terrorists and went up to the rooftop of the house. Today's visit was the second in the past four days by the NIA DG.

PTI