The top recruiter of the terrorist organisation Jamaat-Ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was arrested on Monday by the Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police. An Amir (chief) and top Indian functionary and main recruiter of the banned terrorist organisation in India, Ejaz Ahmad was arrested from Bihar.

Ahmed, who has been wanted in connection with many terrorist activities, is originally from Parui village in Avinashpur area of the district. He was produced at Bankshall Court and remanded in police custody till 10 September.

According to STF sources, Ahmed was living as a resident of village Pathantoli in the Buniyadpur police station area of Gaya district in Bihar. He was apprehended from a house in the locality after a team of the Kolkata Police STF and Bihar Police conducted a joint raid based on a concrete lead. He was constantly in touch with Salauddin Salahein and Kauser all these years and is wanted in many JMB cases. So far, many terrorists hailing from Bangladesh had led the activities of the terror outfit which was banned by the Centre in the aftermath of the terror attack at a cafe in Dhaka in 2016 in which 22 people including 17 foreigners were killed. The outfit was also involved in the Khagragarh blast in West Bengal.

“He is the topmost Indian functionary and the main recruiter of the organisation working in this country. He was in constant touch with JMB terrorists in Bangladesh. He is wanted in a number of JMB-related cases,” a police officer said in Kolkata.

“Generally, persons who have strong ideological base and who can convince others to join them are appointed as Amirs. He had completed his education in Urdu from a village madrassa and cleared his Fazil exam,” said another police officer.

Ahmed had played a vital role in the Bodh Gaya blast in 2018. A low-intensity bomb had exploded on 19 January last year, hours after Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama had finished a sermon at the Mahabodhi temple.

Police sources said that he had been living with his wife and children under different names and was regularly changing address.

He was working as the JMB’s main recruiter, working in different illegal madrassas which came up along the Indo- Bangladesh borders of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. After the arrests of many key men of JMB in the past few years by the STF and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Ahmed was tasked with regrouping the terror outfit and inducting new recruits.

Ahmed has been booked under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) and 130 (Aiding escape of, rescuing or harbouring such prisoner who has escaped from the lawful custody) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act. Although no weapon was recovered from his possession, the police claimed that incriminating documents and a laptop has been confiscated from him.