Burdwan terrorists were plotting strikes in six states: Centre

NEW DELHI: The Centre says that the terrorists involved in the Burdwan terror plot in West Bengal were preparing bombs for major strikes in six states, including J&K and UP, and the terror outfit Jamaat-Ud-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JUMB) was training a large number of Indian youths for such acts.

This has been revealed in the notification issued by MHA on October 9 while transferring the case to the NIA without consultation with the West Bengal government. The move to transfer the case suo-motu to NIA comes even as Mamata Banerjee has been a stout defender of the federal structure and earlier objected to the proposed NCTC and had said that law and order should be exclusively the state’s domain.

It was earlier reported that the terrorists, two of whom died in the explosion on October 2, were preparing bombs for strikes only in Bangladesh. But MHA said six Indian states, including West Bengal, were also their target.

“Centre has received information that members of JUMB are conspiring to commit terror acts in India and Bangladesh and several members of the outfit have set up bases hideouts in several parts of India,” the MHA notification says. Acting on the same, the NIA has registered a case on Friday and a team from NIA’s Kolkata branch has started a probe. “The decision to transfer the case to NIA has not been a political one but purely a professional one.”