Burdwan blast: NIA officials hold talks with Bangladesh agencies

Dhaka, Nov 17: Seeking to unravel the plot behind the Burdwan blast, a team of officials from India's National Investigation Agency today held talks with their Bangladeshi counterparts.

"They (NIA delegation) are holding a meeting with our senior secretary (of the home ministry) Mohammad Mozammel Haque Khan and other concerned officials," a home ministry spokesman said.

He told the media that a delegation of the Indian high commission in Dhaka also joined the NIA in the meeting. The four-member team led by NIA Director General Sharad Kumar, which arrived here today, will seek cooperation to unravel the plans of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terror outfit allegedly responsible for the October 2 blast in Burdwan district of West Bengal which killed two suspected terrorists.

Earlier, Dhaka had assured of sharing its intelligence.

The visit came after NIA made major headway in the case by arresting JMB's Chief commander for Burdwan module, Sajid, a Bangladeshi national, Amjad Sheikh and Zia-ul-Haque who allegedly procured explosives and motivated youth for terror groups.

NIA has been investigating militant networks after the Oct 2 blast at a house

Bangladesh's elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has captured Sajid's brother Mohammad Monayem. Indian mission in Dhaka today said the NIA team would "hold meetings with relevant authorities of Bangladesh as part of ongoing bilateral security cooperation".

Bangladesh's state minister for home Asaduzzaman Khan yesterday told the NIA delegation was expected to join and work together with a Bangladesh team formed with heads of intelligence chiefs in Dhaka.

NIA has been investigating militant networks after the October 2 blast at a house, visibly turned into a clandestine bomb manufacturing factory, in Burdwan district while the security officials earlier said JMB had spread its clandestine network in bordering areas in India.

Two suspected militants had died in the explosion that rocked the Burdwan house and their two wives, believed also to be trained by the JMB, were caught.

PTI