The arrested terrorist of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Mohammad Jahid-ul Islam alias Bomber Miyan alias Kausar has revealed their group’s plans of launching jihad in Indian states like West Bengal and Assam. According to a report in India Today, the terrorist has admitted during interrogation that they were planning to use exploit the Rohingya issue to further their cause of launching Jihad against India.
He has reportedly revealed that they had planned the blasts at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya to be the ‘announcement’ of their arrival and a display of their capabilities. As the Dalai Lama was visiting at the time and a great number of Buddhist pilgrims were to visit the temple, the blasts were planned to have the maximum impact. On January 19, 3 powerful IEDs were found in the temple after one of the devices malfunctioned and caught fire. Kausar is reportedly an explosives expert.
Two other arrested terrorists in the case had revealed that the IED was placed near cooking cylinders to cause maximum damage, as the blast would have exploded the LPG cylinders too. Another IED was reportedly planted near the gate to kill escaping people. The media coverage and severity of attack was the intended ‘announcement’ the JMB planned for. Two West Bengal residents, Abdul Karim and Mustafizur Rehman, who were arrested in Kerala on August 5 were believed to have been recruited by Kausar. Kausar’s another associate Adil alias Asadullah was also arrested by NIA in Bangalore.
Kausar Ali alias Mohammad Jahid-Ul Islam is reportedly JMB’s deputy chief who had escaped from the Bangladeshi authorities in 2014 during the prison transport and had infiltrated into India. He had immediately started recruiting people. He had married a local girl in Birbhum and even taught in a Madarsa in Beldanga. However, his immediate plans in 2014 were foiled after an accidental blast in Khagragarh, Burdwan killed two operatives and alerted the Indian authorities of a large existing JMB network already operational in India. The Khagragarh unit was reportedly making explosives to be smuggled into Bangladesh. Kausar then reportedly went underground and is believed to have travelled across south India as a workman or plumber. He is believed to have recruited many people over the years and has even been involved in the radicalisation of Muslim youth in several areas. He was arrested from Ramnagara near Bangalore.
The India Today report states that the NIA believes the JMB has many operational modules in India and many top JMB operatives have met Kausar on several occasions. On 8th August another JMB operative was arrested from Pakur, Jharkhand. Earlier in July, two JMB operatives were arrested in Delhi while they were trying to activate a module consisting of Rohingya Muslims.
Recently another JMB operative named Mohammad Musiruddin alias Musa was arrested by the West Bengal CID on suspected links to the Khagragarh blast case. NIA was also probing on his suspected terror links and the US FBI has also interrogated Musa over his ISIS links. Musa had admittedly in contact with several top ISIS leaders.
The JMB has been a dreaded terror outfit in Bangladesh for years. Over the years, it is believed to have shifted its allegiance from Al-Qaeda to the ISIS and both the terror organisations are suspected of using the Rohingya refugee crisis as a tool for expanding their extremist agenda. It is notable here that when Kausar alias Bomber Miyan was being interrogated in Bangladesh after his arrest, he had revealed that JMB has close ties with the Rohingya terrorist group Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) and JMB operatives have received training in firearms from RSO in exchange for lessons on explosives. It was well-known that the JMB was targeting Buddhist pilgrimage sites as a ‘revenge’ for the Rohingya crisis. JMB has also been linked with the 2013 Bodh Gaya blasts. But the arrest of Kausar alias Bomber Miyan has exposed just how deep and how far the JMB has gained access inside Indian borders and how the Rohingya population can be recruited and used by these terror outfits for launching jihad in India.
Security agencies in India have long since warned the potential danger the Rohingya refugees possess to India and have alerted of their links to terror organisations. Rohingya refugee camps are suspected to be the breeding ground for radicalisation and terror activities. Now, with the revelation of JMB’s deep-rooted network in India and their plans for jihad on Indian soil, the need for strict action on Rohingya refugees is the ever more important. It also exposes the treat that the porous India Bangladesh border poses for our national security.
