Bengal govt alerted of JMB’s ‘plans for state’ to create unrest

KOLKATA, (IANS): Central intelligence agencies have alerted their state-level counterparts in West Bengal on Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) targeting some unrecognised educational institutions in the state with the dual motive of selecting new recruits as well as opening new terror modules.

Sources said that the central intelligence agencies have also alerted their counterparts in the state of future plans and initiatives by JMB to reorganise their existing terror modules in seven districts which especially include those which are having borders with neighbouring Bangladesh.

These seven districts include Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur in the initial phase and Birbhum, Nadia, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas in the next phase.

Sources said that the JMB activists will target the teachers of unrecognised educational institutions and convince them to encourage their students to join the modules.

“Once that brainwashing phase is over, in the next phase the process of selecting young students for the terror modules will start. In the next phase, the selected candidates will be taken to the different terrorist training camps for training on the use of arms and explosives,” sources said.

They added that after the training process is completed, they will be sent back to West Bengal to be part of the different terror modules in the different districts

Sources said that based on the alert from the central intelligence agencies the Special Task Force (STF) units of both West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police, whose main area of operation is counter-terrorism activity, have enhanced their monitoring in different parts of the state, especially in the bordering districts.

At the same time the sleuths of the state Intelligence Branch (IB) of the state police and Special Branch (SB) of Kolkata Police have also been asked to be on high alert and not to ignore any input, however minor it might appear.

JMB claimed responsibility for the 2014 blast at Khagragarh in the East Burdwan district of West Bengal and the 2018 Bodh Gaya bombing attacks. Several members of the group were convicted in these two cases.