By: Animesh Roul
A failed bomb plot that appeared to target the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, equally he visited a pilgrimage site inwards Bihar, India, has been blamed on the militant grouping Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen People's Republic of Bangladesh (JMB), as well as an emerging Indian offshoot. On Jan 19, a depression intensity nail on the grounds of the Tibetan monastery inwards Bodh Gaya caused panic with devotees of the Dalai Lama. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 subsequent sweep of the vicinity—the nail occurred later the Dalai Lama had left—led to the recovery of ii improvised explosive devices close the monastery’s Kalachakra (Wheel of Time) prayer the world (Indian Express, Jan 20). Investigations into the incident revealed the interest of the Bangladesh-based JMB.
India’s elite anti-terror National Investigation Agency (NIA) as well as Kolkata Police Special Task Force (STF) believe the JMB was planning to avenge the atrocities on Rohingya Muslims inwards neighboring Myanmar past times targeting Buddhist pilgrims as well as unusual nationals—actor Richard Gere was with those who visited the Dalai Lama—who had come upward to hear to the Dalai Lama during his month-long rest (New Bharat Express, Feb 3). The NIA initiated a massive search as well as sweep functioning inwards West Bengal, a well-known hideout for Bangladeshi militant fugitives. Subsequently, details of a newly emerged JMB network inwards Bharat remove keep surfaced.
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India
In Feb 2018, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata (West Bengal) law arrested at to the lowest degree 6 people from the Murshidabad as well as Darjeeling districts with suspected links to JMB, including ii who law state were involved inwards the planting of IEDs inwards Bodh Gaya (Hindustan Times, Feb 23). Following the arrests of the ii men—who the government named equally Azhar Hossain as well as Shish Mohammad—police inwards the town of Dhuliyan, inwards Murshidabad, seized to a greater extent than than 200 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, fifty detonators, timers as well as tiffin boxes (metal lunchboxes) that were allegedly to live used to brand IEDs.
Two other suspects arrested, Paigambar Shaikh as well as Jamirul Shaikh, revealed to a greater extent than incriminating details almost JMB’s Bharat fly as well as the recruitment drive inwards West Bengal as well as Bihar. The duet reportedly confessed that fugitive JMB leaders Salahuddin Ahmed (a.k.a. Salein) as well as Jahidul Islam, known equally “Boma” Mizan for his expertise inwards explosives, were the creators of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bharat (JMI) as well as had planned to target Buddhist pilgrimage circuits inwards West Bengal as well as Bihar. They claimed that Salein was the main of JMI as well as had been instrumental inwards recruiting several novel members, as well as said that at to the lowest degree 8 units of JMI, each comprising 10-12 members, had been tasked with carrying out anti-Buddhist attacks inwards Bharat (New Indian Express, Feb 3).
The continued crackdown led to the arrest on June xi of a suspected militant named Hazibullah, who the law claim helped inwards procuring explosives for the Bodh Gaya bomb plot (DNA India, June 12). Hazibullah was picked upward inwards Bandel town, inwards the Hooghly district of West Bengal.
Before the formal founding of JMI, the remnants of a fleeing JMB contingent were visible on Indian soil, peculiarly during the Burdwan bombing episode of Oct 2014. According to India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), JMI’s main as well as his deputy are responsible, along with other JMI members, for an accidental explosion inwards 2014 inwards the Burdwan district of West Bengal. The Khagragarh blast, which was followed past times a law raid as well as a subsequent arms seizure, exposed for the origin fourth dimension a flourishing JMB network inwards Bharat (Live Mint, Dec 1, 2014). Two JMB militants were killed inwards the accidental explosion as well as a issue of others sustained severe injuries. Both NIA as well as Bangladesh’s Counter Terrorism as well as Transnational Crime Units remove keep already announced monetary rewards for credible data relating to JMB fugitives as well as its burgeoning network.
JMB Fugitives
JMI’s Salein has been a senior figure inwards JMB since 2001. He was inwards accuse of Sylhet-Mymensingh percentage inwards Bangladesh, but fled People's Republic of Bangladesh as well as is inwards hiding. He has perhaps been operating from Indian territory since he as well as Boma Mizan escaped from a prison theatre van later a JMB orchestrated ambush inwards the Trishal locality of Mymensingh district inwards Feb 2014 (Daily Star, Feb 23, 2014).
A committed jihadist originally from Narayanganj, Salein has been sentenced to buy the farm inwards People's Republic of Bangladesh for his purpose inwards the Mymensingh courtroom bombing inwards 2007, the targeting several Christian youths inwards Jamalpur as well as the killings of Hridoy Roy inwards Apr 2003 as well as Joseph Gani Gomez Mandal inwards September 2004 (Daily Star, Feb 21, 2013; Daily Star, March 08, 2015).
A cursory hold off at Salein’s career inside JMB’s rank as well as file suggests he had been a fellow member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party’s radical pupil wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS). He joined JMB piece studying inwards Tejgaon Polytechnic Institute inwards Dhaka, as well as was influenced past times JMB’s armed forces main Ataur Rahman Sunny. He was arrested inwards belatedly Apr 2006, during a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) functioning at Pahartoli inwards Chittagong. Boma Mizan is soon the deputy main of JMI as well as has backed Salein since his dramatic 2014 ambush as well as escape.
Boma Mizan, who was finally arrested inwards May 2009 later years of operate past times the People's Republic of Bangladesh safety agencies, came onto the safety radar next JMB’s countrywide series bombings on August 17, 2005. He played a major purpose inwards making to a greater extent than than 500 bomb attacks across People's Republic of Bangladesh that killed as well as injured to a greater extent than than a hundred people. His bomb-making skills were employed past times JMB inwards a series of attacks against the Court Houses as well as judges inwards Bangladesh, betwixt Oct as well as Nov 2005 (Dhaka Tribune, Feb 23, 2014; BDNews24.com, September 26, 2017). He was arrested inwards May 2009 inwards the Mirpur expanse of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.
According to Bangladesh’s investigating agencies, similar many JMB operatives, Boma Mizan had received arms as well as explosives preparation from the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), an insurgent grouping that fought for the crusade of Rohingya Muslim minorities as well as against alleged atrocities past times Buddhists inwards Myanmar (Daily Star, May 19, 2009). These long-standing operational links with the Rohingya grouping may prevarication behind the attempts past times fugitive JMB leaders to target Buddhist pilgrimage circuits inwards West Bengal as well as Bihar.
Proselytization, Training as well as Armed Combat
The founding of JMI on Indian soil indicates ii things—that Bangladesh’s concerted counterterror operations remove keep pushed the JMB remnants into neighboring Bharat inwards search of a prophylactic haven, as well as that in that place has been somewhat of an ideological rift inside the original JMB with the dissimilar strands adhering to either the jihadist ideals of al-Qaeda or those of Islamic State (IS).
Salein’s al-Qaeda-influenced, India-based faction is attempting to regroup as well as recruit novel members nether the banner of JMI, as well as its seemingly broad based jihadist objectives as well as geographical reach. Long earlier the confessions of arrested militants inwards Feb revealed the beingness of JMI, Salein as well as his squad had attempted to reinvigorate the former JMB as well as had broadcast their hereafter agenda through a Bengali linguistic communication media arm, Sahm al-Hind (Dhaka Tribune, August 5, 2017).
JMI as well as Sahm al-Hind media used pop online publishing platforms similar WordPress as well as Justpaste.it, also equally social media channels such equally YouTube, to post service their propaganda. In mid-July 2017, Sahm al-Hind published an interview with Salein that gave details almost hereafter activities as well as the objectives of his novel group, although these details seem worryingly to remove keep escaped the attending of India’s intelligence agencies. [1]
Underscoring the JMB’s reorganization equally JMI as well as the larger agenda of jihad on the Indian subcontinent, Salein inwards his interview with Sahm al-Hind outlined JMI’s 3 main objectives: proselytization, preparation as well as armed fighting with a stance to establishing Islamic dominion across the Indian subcontinent. According to Salein, JMI’s target would oust “unbelievers” inwards the “land of Allah” past times strength of arms. He vehemently denied the beingness of whatsoever New-JMB inwards People's Republic of Bangladesh as well as rejected suggestions of a separate inwards the JMB, calling the proposition a conspiracy intended to malign the movement. He urged Muslims of the percentage to wage the mythical Ghazwa tul Hind (battle betwixt infidels as well as believers inwards India) to flora a caliphate inwards the Indian subcontinent. [2].
Salein is highly critical of IS inwards Syrian Arab Republic as well as Republic of Iraq as well as adheres instead to the ideals of JMB’s original influencer, al-Qaeda. In precipitous contrast, the Neo-JMB faction that has dominated the militant landscape inwards People's Republic of Bangladesh inwards recent years as well as masterminded several high profile attacks inwards the country—including the July 2016 laid on on the Holy Artisan bakery—is ideologically as well as operationally influenced past times IS as well as its violent principles (Prathom Alo, August 17, 2016; Hindustan Times, Feb 10).
India’s northeastern region, including Assam as well as West Bengal, provides a prophylactic haven for illegal immigrants as well as Islamic militants because of its porous edge as well as pitiful security. The regions remove keep predominate Muslim populations, with mosques as well as madrasa networks that remove keep allowed Bangladesh-based militant groups similar JMB as well as Harkat ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI) to heighten money, fabric as well as manpower.
West Bengal’s 4 districts: North 24-Parganas, Murshidabad, Malda as well as Nadia as well as Assam’s Nalbari district remain major hotspots for Bangladeshi militants as well as remove keep travel a stronghold of JMB over the years. People's Republic of Bangladesh has taken stringent measures to tackle terrorism since the province suffered a series of terrorist attacks betwixt 2013 as well as 2016, generally claimed past times the al-Qaeda-linked Ansarulla Bangla Team (ABT) as well as the IS-inspired Neo-JMB. Now JMB jihadists remove keep spilt over into neighboring India.
NOTES
[1] “Special interview of Emir Jamaatul Mujahideen Shaikh Salahuddin (Hafiz), (Author’s translation from Bengali language) Sahm al-Hind Media, July 21, 2017, https://sahmalhind1.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/জামাআতুল-মুজাহিদীনর-আম/
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