Guwahati: Six JMB members convicted in terror case

GUWAHATI: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Guwahati convicted six members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a Bangladeshi militant outfit banned in the neighbouring country and in India, in connection with a case registered for allegedly carrying out terror activities in the state. The verdict was passed on Tuesday.
The accused were arrested from lower Assam’s Barpeta in 2019.According to the chargesheet filed in January last year, the case came to light with the arrest of one Hafizur Rahman from his residence in Barpeta and the seizure of a country-made pistol, several rounds of live ammunition and other objectionable items. Based on his disclosure during interrogation, the other accused were arrested.
The NIA court awarded two years and six months’ imprisonment to Hafizur Rahman while two years to each of the other accused — Yakub Ali, Shariful Islam, Mustafur Rehman, Hafiz Shafiqur Islam and Azharuddin Ahmed.
Investigations by the NIA revealed that all the accused were recruited to JMB by one Sahanur Alom, a resident of Barpeta, who was arrested by the agency in 2014 for his involvement in the Burdwan blast case of West Bengal.
Alom was convicted in 2019 with eight years of imprisonment on charges of “conspiracy to commit terrorist acts in India and recruiting and training other members of JMB”.
It may be mentioned that on October 2, 2014, a powerful IED blast took place on the first floor of a rented house in the busy Khagragarh locality of Burdwan district of West Bengal around 12.15pm. The IED had accidentally gone off at the time of its making by the members of JMB.
The rented house was occupied by the members of JMB, ostensibly for burqa stitching though in reality it was being used for nefarious activity of bomb-making, the NIA statement said.
Two accused persons in the case had died of their injuries sustained in the blast.