The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over from the Tripura Police a case ‘involving’ Nazir Sheikh, a suspected cadre of the terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
As per reports, NIA was quoted as saying in a statement, “Case FIR No 019 dated 6.3.2019 under Sections 120B, 121, 121A, 122 and 123 of the IPC and Sections 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Police Station AD Nagar, West Tripura District has been taken over by NIA as Case No RC-01/2019/NIA-GUW (JMB Case of Tripura) on 22.03.2019 and investigation started.”
NIA further added that the case relates to the arrest of a JMB cadre Nazir Sheikh who is a resident of Murshidabad in West Bengal who has been charged with “conspiracy to commit terrorist acts in India”.
Sheikh was arrested by the Tripura Police earlier this month for having links with the terrorist outfit JMB. The police arrested him after receiving intelligence inputs and conducting a number of search operations.
Sheikh who is an expert in making Improvised Explosive Device (IED) told the police that “deadly attacks were being planned” in Assam and Bangladesh to “terrify the enemies of Islam”.
His confessions echoes those of Mujibur Rahman, who, after his arrest by Bangladesh Police, confessed to working closely with Mazhar Khan, an ISI officer working under consular cover as assistant visa officer in the Pakistani Embassy in Dhaka.
Rahman confessed that he had been to Pakistan at least 20 times, to India 11 times and to Thailand to meet ISI officers and gun-runners 22 times, all in the past 18 months.
He told Bangladesh Police that the ISI officers were funding and arming the neo-JMB elements and the Bangkok meetings were part of the “third-country contacts” to facilitate peddling of weapons to the jihadis inside Bangladesh and Northeast India.
Since Rahman’s confessions, Bangladesh Police has tightened its surveillance of the Pakistan Embassy in Dhaka and the Hasina Government has even refused to accept the credentials of Pakistan’s ambassdor designate in Dhaka, Syedah Saqlain.
