Intelligence agencies in Bangladesh and India have exchanged lists of suspected fugitives believed to be hiding in each other’s countries to evade trials.
The visiting team of India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has handed over a list of 11 “top Indian terrorists” to Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), including suspects in the Bardhaman blast case. The RAB has given a list of 51 suspected criminals, including 10 militants, who are purportedly holed up in India.
The lists were given at a high-level meeting at the RAB headquarters here on Tuesday. NIA Director-General Sharad Kumar and RAB Director-General Mokhlesur Rahman led the respective teams. Both agencies also shared images and other details of the suspected militants. The Bangladesh list includes the names of Sunny and Boma Mizan, who are among the top three Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) members snatched by a group of armed men from a prison van on a highway in February this year. NIA officials believe that bomb-making expert Boma Mizan is training young JMB militants in explosives-manufacturing in West Bengal.
The NIA team’s visit to Dhaka was aimed at investigating the jihadi networks following the October 2 blast at a house in West Bengal’s Bardhaman. The house had been turned into a factory for making Improvised Explosive Devices by JMB militants, the investigators claimed. Two suspected militants died in the explosion and their wives, believed also to have been trained by the banned outfit, were apprehended.
