Rezaul Karim was custodian and courier of bombs and explosives for Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh modules. Indrani Roy/Rediff.com reports on the significance of his arrest.
The National Investigation Agency arrested Rezaul Karim alias Rezaul Sheikh, an alleged operative of the banned Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh terror outfit, on Saturday, January 10.
According to investigators, Karim's arrest is of great significance as he is believed to be one of the most important links connecting Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh modules in West Bengal with their Bangladesh counterparts.
Karim was arrested from a location close to Ranchi in Jharkhand.
"He was working as a contract labourer there," investigators told Rediff.com
The NIA had announced a cash reward of Rs 500,000 for his arrest.
Karim acted as the custodian of bombs and improvised explosive devices that Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh modules in Burdwan made and also assisted in couriering them to various parts of Bengal as well as Bangladesh.
When Bangladesh sleuths visited Kolkata recently, they handed over a list of important suspects of the Burdwan case to the National Investigation Agency. "Karim's name appeared towards the top," a source told Rediff.com
The blast at a house in Burdwan's Khagragarh area on October 2, 2014, took the lid off a Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh network thriving in Bengal for years.
After the blast, investigators discovered a phone number scribbled on the palm of blast survivor Abdul Hakim.
This was the last number Hakim called from his wife Alima's mobile handset.
On interrogating the couple, the investigators discovered that the number belonged to Karim.
Hakim told investigators that he called Karim to inform him about the blast, sources told Rediff.com
Karim would have transported the bombs and IEDs that Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh terrorists were making at the Khagragarh house to Rajsahi in Bangladesh on October 3.
The accidental explosion foiled their plan and Karim left Burdwan immediately.
A mason by profession, Karim hails from Murshidabad district.
After the blast, he fled to his native district and from there to Jharkhand.
Karim had set up a small 'armoury' at a two-storey house he rented in Burdwan's Badsahi Road, barely 100 metres from the blast site.
On October 16, NIA agents and the National Security Guard discovered a 'godown' in a loft above the toilet of Karim's house.
The opening to the loft was too narrow and the sleuths asked a local teenager to look in.
The space was full of sacks packed with grenades, bombs and IEDs.
Karim was in constant touch with two other suspects who are still absconding -- Yusuf and Kausar -- investigators told Rediff.com
On September 30, a Bangladeshi couple visited Kausar's rented house in Burdwan and started staying with him, sources told Rediff.com
At the same time, Yusuf, suspected to head Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh's Burdwan module, also arrived.
"Kausar and Yusuf have a wide network in West Bengal and Bangladesh and transferred the explosives with ease,"a source said.
According to investigators, Kausar and Yusuf had hired the Bangladeshi couple as couriers.
The investigators are looking for the following people for their alleged involvement with the Burdwan blast:
- Habibur Rahman (a madrasa teacher in Birbhum's Mulukgram)
- Naseerullah (an aide of Shakil Ahmed, who was killed in the October 2 blast)
- Borhan Sheikh (owner of the land on which the Simulia madrasa, which allegedly trained the Burdwan terror modules, was located)
- Kausar (an alleged kingpin in the Burdwan blast case)
- Taleha Sheikh (a Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh leader)
- Abul Kalam (a resident of Burdwan's Mongolkot, who acted as an important link for the Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh in Bengal)
- Kadar Kazi (a resident of Kirnahar in Birbhum and an important aide of Kausar)
- Zahir-ul Sheikh (an alleged 'storekeeper' for Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh modules)
- Yusuf Sheikh (the alleged mastermind)
Image: Investigators at the site of the Burdwan blast.
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