Kolkata: A Murshidabad resident was arrested on Monday for allegedly helping terror outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) get explosives to carry out the 2013 Bodh Gaya blast.
Hajibulla, a 57-year-old resident of Samsherganj in Bengal’s Murshidabad district, was apprehended by the Kolkata Police's Special Task Force around 8.45 am from Hooghly’s Bandel Railway Station while he was buying ticket for a local train.
“He had helped in procuring explosives that were used by the terrorists of Bangladesh-based terror outfit to carry out the Bodh Gaya blast,” STF deputy commissioner Murlidhar Sharma said.
Several leaflets related to religion, cash and contact numbers of his associates in India were seized. Police said preliminary inquiry revealed that he was also involved in a fake currency racket.
A Tibetan monk and a tourist were injured in the blast at a Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya. Spiritual guru Dalai Lama was also in the town when the explosion occurred. Nine blasts within thirty minutes had rocked the peaceful city, marking the first terrorist attack on the soil of Bihar.
The arrested man has been booked under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 121, 121-A (waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India), 123 IPC (concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war) and 125 (waging war against any Asiatic Power in alliance with the Government of India) of the IPC.
Asked where he might have sourced the explosives from, Sharma said, “The matter is under investigation but his arrest will be crucial for us to take this case forward. He would be produced before the Bankshall Court in Kolkata.”
Hajibulla is the fifth JMB suspect to have been arrested so far in the Bodh Gaya explosion case.
Earlier, on February 23, 2018, another active member of JMB in Bangladesh, Nur Alam, was arrested by the STF for his alleged role in Bodh Gaya blast. A resident of Khulna in Bangladesh, Alam was arrested from his hideout at Dhulian in Bengal’s Murshidabad district and is currently lodged in jail.
Nur’s arrest followed the arrests of two of his associates, Paigamber Sheikh (24) and Jamirul Sheikh (31), who revealed Nur’s identity during interrogation. Later Nur tipped the Kolkata STF about Hajibulla, it was learnt.
While Paigamber was arrested from Kankuria Gram in Murshidabad, Jamirul, a resident of Ratanpur in Murshidabad, was picked up from Phansideva in Darjeeling. A few days later, another Bodh Gaya blast accused, Ahmed Ali alias Kalu, was arrested from Samserganj in Murshidabad.
A team of National Investigating Agency (NIA), which is primarily investigating the Bodh Gaya blast case, is also planning to interrogate Hajibulla.
On January 19, a low-intensity explosive went off and two live bombs were recovered near the Kalachakra ground in Bodh Gaya. At the time of blast Dalai Lama, along with several foreign Buddhist Pilgrims, were camping at Bodh Gaya to participate in a month-long Kalachakra puja.
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