New Delhi: The crackdown on Al-Qaeda module in Kerala and West Bengal brings into light a new debate on migrant workers as Murshid Hasan arrested from Pathalam on the outskirts of Kochi city in Kerala is originally a resident of West Bengal.
Sources in investigating agencies and elsewhere say Murshid had gone to Kerala in 2013 like any ‘outsider-job seeker’ to work in the construction sector as an ‘expert’ in cement works.
But no sooner he landed in ‘God’s own country’ cherishing a communist regime which was supposed to be lenient towards Muslim organisations and individuals, the son of Abdul Matin Sheikh from Domkal in Murshidabad district in Bengal got in touch with a “Bangladeshi citizen and a key Al Qaeda handler”.
The transformation in the shy man was exemplary. Trained by ‘experts’, he established ‘Domkal chapter’ of Al-Qaeda operations in the backyards of West Bengal and the fact that his native district shared border with Bangladesh came as an additional advantage to the various sinister plans.
Sources said, Murshid picked up young boys and girls from local Madrasas and indoctrinated them to believe the Al Qaeda agenda. Later he deputed them in various operations and even had managed to put in his boys in Kashmir’s ‘Stone-pelting warriors’ force.
Neighbours of Murshid Hasan in Kerala, of course, did not know much about him, but such style of operations in clandestine nature is not unknown to security agencies.
“Among others he cultivated Muslim youngsters from West Bengal who landed in Kerala as migrant workers,”said one source in the know of things. Many such youngsters hailed from Islampur, Karimpur, Domkal and Sheikhpara in Bengal.
Murshid himself used to travel to Murshidabad district from time to time and reports claimed he was last seen in his home state in February – prior to Lockdown enforced due to Covid19.
Local ‘training’ classes also used to be organised in some of these places.
Investigators believe Murshid had visited some border towns in Bangladesh met ‘Al-Qaeda handlers’ and also went to Dubai and some key hideout places in Pakistan. It was only in Pakistan he got the crucial parts of ‘Al Qaeda training’.
The ‘networks’ Murshid had established was ‘useful’ to terror operatives in ensuring arms smuggling and also circulation of fake currency notes.
The operatives reportedly also suffered a huge loss in cash following demonetisation decision in November 2016.
In the past also, there have been adverse reports vis-a-vis bomb-making and terror modules from Murshidabad district in West Bengal.
The local wrongdoers in the district had nexus with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen of Bangladesh (JMB) and also Ansarullah Bangal Team (ABT).
They also coordinated with similar operatives in neighbouring Malda district.
