Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen aimed at destabilising Bangladesh elected government: NIA

KOLKATA: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a banned terrorist outfit, was planning to destabilise the democratically-elected government in Bangladesh by establishing a network in India, an official of the National Investigating Agency said today.

"During the course of investigation in the Burdwan blast in West Bengal, it has been found that the clear motive of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was to overthrow the democratically-elected government in Bangladesh," a senior official of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) told reporters here after filing a chargesheet in the blast case.

The banned outfit was trying to replace the elected government by a hardline Sharia-based Islamic rule through violent terrorist acts, which came to light after the accidental blast on October 2, 2014.

The NIA, which filed a charegsheet against 21 persons, named four Bangladeshis which had connections with the JMB.

The official said that the JMB was spreading its base in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Assam.

These bases were being used for organising radicalisation programmes, organisational meetings, fund collection drives, hideouts for cadres, recruitment and training.

During NIA search operations, it had been found that a network of terrorist training camps at selected madrasas and other hide-outs was found to be in operation where youths were indoctrinated into violent jihadi ideology.

The investigating agency would also file supplementary chargesheets over the course of time, the official said.