NIA Arrests Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist Habibur Rehman near Bengaluru; Is Karnataka under Cong-JDS a safe haven for Bangladeshi terrorists too?

NIA has arrested the absconding Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) terrorist Habibur Rehman from Doddaballapur near Bengaluru yesterday. He was the prime accused in the 2014 Burdwan blast case. Reports suggest that he was arrested from a mosque in the Chickpet area of Doddaballapur. Habibur Rehman had stayed in various places of Karnataka including Bengaluru. At the time of his arrest he was staying in a room in the mosque and had the support of the Imam who is also said to be from Assam. He was working in the mosque for the last one year but the Doddaballapur police had no clue.

Habibur Rehman Sheikh was earlier charge-sheeted by the NIA in March 2015 in the Burdwan blast case for his direct involvement in the conspiracy of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to wage war against Government of India and Bangladesh. The NIA has revealed that Habibur was a close associate of senior JMB leader Jahidul Islam who was arrested in August 2018 from Ramanagara. He was also associated with other JMB leaders like Rahamatullah Sheikh and Moulana Yusuf. As an active member of the Bolpur Module of JMB in West Bengal, he had attended a number of training camps conducted by the terrorist organisation.

The accused was produced before the Sessions Court and NIA Special Judge in Bengaluru yesterday. The Court has granted 5 days’ transit remand for producing him before the Special NIA Court in Kolkata where he was charge-sheeted.

On October 2, 2014, a blast had occurred in a house at Khagragarh in West Bengal’s Burdwan district in which a man identified as Sakil Gazi died on the spot, while another named Sovan Mandal died in hospital. Both of them were activists for the JMB and were also suspected to be involved in other acts of terror too. The NIA had alleged that the JMB members wanted to establish Sharia rule by overthrowing the democratically-elected government in Bangladesh.

The blasts took place in the house that belonged to Hasan Chowdhury, a leader of the Trinamool Congress. The ground floor of the building was used as TMC party office. During the 2008 and 2013 Panchayat elections, it was used as the election office by the TMC. Shakil Ahmed who had rented the place died on the spot and two others were injured. One of them Sobhan Mondal died later at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital. The other Abdul Hakim was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition. Wives of Shakil Ahmed and Abdul Hakim were arrested by the NIA. More than 50 improvised explosive devices, large numbers of wrist watch dials, SIM cards, tools used to prepare IEDs, Micro SD cards containing propaganda songs, Taliban training videos were recovered. Fake Indian documents like electoral ID cards and passports were found.

The 2013 Bodh Gaya blasts which also saw the involvement of JMB terrorists was a foray for the terror organization into India. Though no one was killed, the blasts exposed the local support the terrorists were getting for their nefarious designs.

This is not the first time a terrorist has been arrested in Karnataka. Adil Alias Assadullah, another JMB terrorist was arrested near the Cantonment Railway station in Bengaluru on August 9, 2018. He was wanted in connection with the bomb blast at Kalchakra Maidan in Bodh Gaya in January 2018. A resident of a village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, he had found safe haven in Karnataka for several years, NIA investigations had revealed.

Senior JMB leader Mohammed Jahidul Islam was arrested from Ramanagara, Chief Ministers constituency, on August 7, 2018. Jahidul Islam was a top leader of the JMB and was also wanted in the Burdwan blast case. He had lived in the town for more than 2 years and the state police had no clue. NIA had revealed that Jahidul was planning to undertake destructive activities in various parts of the state.