JMB man arrested in West Bengal

The Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police have arrested yet another man for allegedly being an operative of the banned Bangladeshi terror outfit, Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), from West Bengal's Hooghly district.

The arrest comes within 10 days of the STF arresting an alleged JMB operative, Abdul Karim, from Murshidabad district.

"Sk. Rezaul alias Kiron, a resident of Birbhum district, was wanted in the STF police station case number 01/2018 and has been arrested from Dankuni police station area in Hooghly district. He will be produced before a court," an STF spokesperson said on Monday.

The spokesperson said Rezaul was "a key person of JMB" who is "supposed to have worked in close liaison with Salahuddin Salehin" and served as "a leading fund collector of JMB in India".

Salehin, the helmsman of what is known as 'old JMB' or the pro-Al Qaeda faction of JMB, was sentenced to death in Bangladesh but was 'freed' during a terror attack on a prison van carrying him and has since been hiding in different parts of India. In 2018,

Salehin announced the launch of JMB's India chapter. He is in the list of "most wanted" declared by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

"Rezaul is said to have coordinated meetings of key personnel in the organisation," the spokesperson said.

Since the 2014 Burdwan blast that opened the lid on a flourishing JMB network in West Bengal, and also some other states like Assam, Jharkhand and Karnataka, more than five dozen suspected JMB operatives have been arrested in West Bengal, according to a senior police officer who is involved in anti-terror operations.

The NIA had unearthed several JMB modules in the districts of Burdwan, Birbhum, Nadia and Murshidabad.

Karim alias Boro Karim, who was arrested from Murshidabad on May 29, was described by the police as "the main leader of the Dhuliyan module (Murshidabad) and would actively supply logistics and support and shelter top leaders."