Nearly five years after the 2014 Burdwan blast in West Bengal, a special NIA court convicted 19 people, including four Bangladeshis and three from Assam, were convicted on Wednesday.
Media reports quoted officials as saying that all the convicts confessed to their involvement in the blast which had claimed two persons.
The blast took place on October 2, 2014 when an improvised explosive device, that the convicts were making, exploded in Khagragarh area, a busy locality in West Bengal’s Burdwan district.
The three persons from Assam, who have been convicted in the 2014 Burdwan blast case, are Shaikhul Islam Khan alias Swaiful Islam Khan alias Abdullah, Sahanur Alam alias Doctor and Sahidul Islam alias Asraful Alam alias Nirmal alias Surjo.
While Shaikhul Islam Khan hails from Kahikuchi village in Barpeta district, Sahanur Alam hails from Chatla village of Barpeta and Asraful is from Rowmariapathar of the same district.
Reports also quoted officials as saying that the banned militant outfit, Jamat-ul-Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB) had taken the building on rent.
The JMB was carrying out activities from the building which was masked as a burqa stitching factory.
The NIA in a statement said: “The investigation by NIA revealed conspiracy by JMB (Jamat-ul-Mujaheedin Bangladesh) to radicalize recruit and provide training in arms and explosives to its members in India as well as to commit terrorist acts and wage war against the democratically established Government of India and Bangladesh.”
The NIA also said that during investigation, a large number of explosives, hand grenades, training videos and IEDs were recovered.
A total of 30 arrested and charge-sheeted people have currently been under the judicial custody.
The quantum of punishment to all the convicts will be announced by the court on August 30, 2019.
