Terror outfit al Qaeda hand behind Burdwan blast?: Report

Burdwan, Oct 6: A blast at a house in Khagragarh on October 2, that killed two suspected militants, may have links with al Qaeda, a

report said on Monday.

The report said that "the pamphlets featured the name of the al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who had last month announced the formation of the terror outfit's branch in the Indian subcontinent, wading into a region ripe with fierce anti-western ideology and full of young unemployed men ready to take up guns and fight."

"In the pamphlets, we found words and phrases like ‘mujahid' and ‘salaam to our brothers in Chechnya'. We also found the name of Zawahiri in some pamphlets," a police officer was quoted as saying.

However, the state Home Secretary Basudeb Banerje denied any link with the terror outfit, while addressing the media and said, "Certain media reports said that posters relating to al Qaeda were found. No such posters have been found so far. Investigation is on."

Till Monday, three people including two women and a man have been arrested in connection with the Burdwan blast.

Hafez Mollah alias Hasan who was detained by the CID from his house at Khar Duttapa in Purbostholi, on Sunday, was formally arrested on Monday, DIG (Operations), CID Dilip Adak said.

Two women- Rajira Bibi alias Rumi and Amina Bibi, were arrested yesterday in connection with the blast in which involvement of terror outfits like LeT and HuJI is being suspected.

Rajira Bibi hailing from Karimpur in Nadia and Amina Bibi hailing from Lalbagh in Murshidabad - were remanded to police custody for nine days by a local court.

Two suspected militants Shakil Ahmed and Sovan Mandal were killed and another Hasan Saheb was injured in the explosion.

Rajira Bibi is the widow of Shakil Ahmed while Amina Bibi is the wife of injured Hasan Saheb who is under treatment at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital, Burdwan Superintendent of Police S M H Mirza said.

OneIndia News

(With agency inputs)