Another explosion "linked to illegal firecrackers" took place in West Bengal on Monday, the third such blast within a span of just seven days.
The Centre on Thursday decided to hand over to the National Investigation Agency the probe into the bomb blast in Burdwan in West Bengal in which the role of terror groups is suspected, a decision which the Trinamool Congress government said was taken suo motu.
When the BJP forms government in Bengal, the chief minister will be a son of the soil, he said at the rally amid loud cheers from his supporters.
It said two of the key accused were Islamic State of Iraq and Syria radicals, who used fraudulently obtained "Indian SIM cards and Indian bank accounts" besides "various Indian and Bangladeshi Identity documents downloaded from the dark web (which is accessible only through specialised browsers) in carrying out their nefarious activities.
The bomb attack on West Bengal minister Jakir Hossain snowballed into a political controversy with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleging that it was a preplanned conspiracy as certain people were 'pressuring' him to switch over to another party, while opposition parties demanded National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the issue.
The National Investigation Agency on Saturday arrested an alleged operative of banned Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh terror outfit Rezaul Karim, believed to be in charge of transporting explosives to various places in Burdwan in West Bengal.
Suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda and three others, who were accused of helping Pakistani and Bangladeshi terrorists sneak into India in 1997 to carry out terror strikes, were on Saturday discharged in the case by a Delhi court which cited lack of evidence.
The police on Thursday claimed to have cracked the murder case of a human rights activist at Tetultala in West Bengal's Howrah district in a parcel bomb blast in September, with the arrest of three people. Biswajit Majhi, Abhisekh Roy and Subhankar Das were arrested in connection with the case, police sources said.
The building developed cracks in the explosion, the police said.
The National Investigation Agency on Saturday arrested Abdul Mazeed Momin, an absconder, in connection with the Burdwan blast, taking the total number of arrested persons to 17.
Security agencies are apprehensive that the Jalpaiguri blast is merely an indicator of the unrest triggered by fundamentalist outfit Jamaat-e-Islami along the India-Bangladesh border, says Vicky Nanjappa
The National Investigation Agency said the accused persons arrested in the Burdwan blast case and their associates were members of terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Bangladesh, who were preparing IEDs for transporting them to that country for possible terror attacks.
The ULFA along with three other militant groups from the Northeast including Kamatapur Liberation Organisation, which is active in Western Assam and North Bengal area have called for boycott of "Indian Republic Day celebrations' and a general strike on January 26.
Two persons -- one of them a Bangladeshi and believed to be linked with a Gujarat blasts suspect -- were arrested on Friday by a team of the Delhi police in Bhaktinagar area near Siliguri in West Bengal.Five crude bombs and one country-made fire-arm and some rounds of ammunition were recovered from the duo, who were picked up from Santipara under Bhoktinagar police station area in Jalpaiguri district in the wee hours of Friday.
Top Lashkar-e-Tayiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda was on Wednesday remanded in seven days' police custody by a Delhi court after the investigators said those who had allegedly helped him in illegal infiltration of Pakistani nationals are yet to be identified.
Rezaul Karim was the custodian and courier of bombs and explosives for Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh modules in Burdwan.
Investigators on Tuesday said that they think at least six newly recruited terrorists could have been involved in placing explosives in the triple bombings. However, there has been no breakthrough in the probe nearly a week after the attack.
In a major crackdown, 653 crude bombs were seized from West Bengal's Burdwan district and as many as 1,117 people have been arrested in the drive launched by the police.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday assured the Centre of all cooperation to fight terrorism and promised to work together, as the country's security and intelligence chiefs including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval discussed with her the Burdwan blast case.
Less than a week after miscreants hurled bombs at BJP MP Arjun Singh's residence in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas, similar explosions were reported outside his home on Tuesday morning.
Mohd Zakariya, a close aide of top Lashkar-e-Tayiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda, was on Monday remanded to 10- day police custody by a Delhi court after the investigators said he had helped in illegal infiltration of Pakistani nationals into India through Bangladesh.
Establishment of Sharia rule by overthrowing the democratically-elected government in Bangladesh was the motive of Burdwan module of banned terror outfit Jamiat-ul-Mujahdieen Bangladesh, the National Investigation Agency claimed on Monday.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the state governments have been asked to identify Rohingya refugees in their regions and collect their biometric details.
With fresh inputs on the Burdwan blast indicating pan-India existence of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday ordered immediate neutralisation of the terror modules of the banned group.
Here are some of the worst terror attacks in recent history with trains and passengers as intended targets.
Noor-ul-Haque, alleged to be a financial brain behind banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh terror outfit, was nabbed outside Howrah railway station.
Jamaat-Ul Mujahideen Bangladesh activist Mohammed Masiuddin alias Abu Musa has been questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Kolkata to probe a possible conspiracy being hatched by his Syria-based handler Sultan Abdul Kadir Armar to target American assets and nationals.
In a prize catch, the wife of Burdwan blast prime accused and the chief of the women's wing of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh group was arrested on Sunday in Bangladesh along with three others.
The landmine is believed to have been left there by Naxals.
Three more suspects have been arrested in Dhaka in connection with the blast in West Bengal's Burdwan, amid a joint Indo-Bangla operation along the borders to nab over 100 militants of the outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh.
When Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's name was floated as Venkaiah Naidu's successor as vice president, the RSS instead suggested Jagdeep Dhankar, indicating that he was also Mohan Bhagwat's choice, states Prakash Bhandari.
The National Investigation Agency delegation visiting Bangladesh to investigate the Burdwan blast plot has provided some names and phone numbers in connection with the incident to security agencies.
The Delhi police on Wednesday said Mohammad Ashraf alias Ali Ahmed Noorie, a Pakistani terrorist with ISI links who was living in India for over 10 years under a fake identity, had conducted a reconnaissance of the high court here ahead of the 2011 blast on the court premises.
Apart from the bombings, the ATS is interested in looking into the 'Aurangabad angle,' Raghuvanshi said.
The Simulia madrassa, on the outskirts of Bardhaman town in West Bengal, allegedly had links with Gulshana Bibi and Amina Bibi, the women arrested after the October 2 blast in the town. The NIA alleges the madrassa trained poor Muslim women in jihad. The madrassa had an unwritten convention: The women trained there would be married only to men who were on the same 'mission.'
West Bengal police sub-inspector Amitabha Mullick was shot dead and four police personnel were severely injured after supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morch loyal to Gurung opened fire to stop the advancing police party.
If terror indeed has no religion, no partisan affiliations, and if the government, media and all right-minded people in this country people truly believe that, let us not call one blast a "terrorist incident" and dismiss another one as a mere "cylinder blast" just because it is politically convenient, says Shehzad Poonawala.'If terror indeed has no religion, no partisan affiliations, and if the government, media and all right-minded people in this country truly believe that, let us not call one blast a "terrorist incident" and dismiss another one as a mere "cylinder blast" just because it is politically convenient,' argues Shehzad Poonawalla.
Terrorists and insurgents are getting "public support" in some parts of the country and unless this is stopped, India will continue to get hit by acts of terrorism.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
