A Bangladeshi terrorist identified as Jahangir Biswas has been arrested by the Border Security Force (BSF) from Ghojadanga sub-division under Basirhat sub-division in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district.
Biswas was arrested on Saturday evening and was handed over to the local police. He allegedly had plans for a blast in a temple in Chennai, police said.
Acting on a tip off by the National Investigation Agency, the 153rd battalion of BSF that was in-charge of guarding the Gojhadanga border — one of the most sensitive Indo-Bangladesh borders — sprang into action and arrested the person. Biswas, who came to India eight years back, had plans to go back to Bangladesh.
According to sources in the local police, Biswas (26) — a resident of Nagaon Purbapara in Satkhira district of Bangladesh, entered India illegally around eight years back. After that, for some time he was hiding in Chennai and was working there as a civil contractor.
NIA, which was following the movement of Biswas for quite some time, came to know that Biswas along with some other people were planning a blast in a temple in Chennai. NIA investigators also came to know that Chennai- based insurgency group, Hizb Ut Taher had teamed up with some Bangladeshi extremists to conduct that blast.
Things came to the fore after NIA’s Chennai unit arrested two Bangladeshi members a few days back. During interrogation, the name of Biswas surfaced. Facing an imminent threat from the investigating agencies Biswas escaped from Chennai and went underground at Basirhat.
“He was planning to go to Bangladesh and again come back to India after the things settled down. He had plans to escape to Bangladesh through the Ghojadanga border. The BSF battalion deputed there was alerted and finally Biswas was arrested. A team of NIA sleuths have already reached Basirhat Police station to interrogate Biswas,” a senior police officer of the district said.
NIA sources said that although Biswas was associated with the Hizb Ut Tahrir Group, which believes in Islamic State theory, originally, he is a member of the banned Bangladeshi terror outfit, JMB. Recently, different terrorist wings including JMB, Hizb Ut Tahir and Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent have started becoming active in and around Chennai.
As per the latest information, NIA sleuths are trying to take Biswas in their custody.