Tripura: Detained JMB terrorist sent to police custody

Agartala, March 6 (IANS) The Indian member of the terror outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), who was arrested in Tripura on Tuesday, was on Wednesday sent to police custody for 12 days by a court here, a police official said.

"JMB cadre Nazir Shaikh, 25, was sent to 12-day police custody by a judicial magistrate court here. Senior police and intelligence officials will interrogate the terrorist in custody," a police official said, adding that he would be produced in the court again on March 18.

The official said acting on a tip-off on Tuesday afternoon, Shaikh was arrested at Arundhitinagar, on the outskirts of the capital city in western Tripura. "For the past two weeks, he had been working in a private construction firm in Arundhitinagar."

Senior officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) would also question the JMB rebel.

"During the interrogation on Wednesday night, Shaikh confessed that he along with his associates has committed some crimes in Bengaluru, but he did not elaborate the nature of crime," the official added.

Tripura Director General of Police (DGP) Akhil Kumar Shukla said here on Tuesday night that the detainee has been involved in many terror activities both in Bangladesh and India.

"Shaikh, a resident of West Bengal's Murshidabad district, is an expert in making IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices)."

He said that top police and intelligence officials are now interrogating Shaikh but refused to reveal anything more in the interest of investigation.

Shukla told the media that the JMB, banned both in Bangladesh and India, conducted simultaneous explosions in 63 districts in Bangladesh in 2005.

"Nazir Shaikh was involved in the Bodh Gaya blasts in January last year. He is involved in various terror activities in India. We would try to find out all possible angles about his arrival in Tripura ahead of the Lok Sabha elections," he said.

At the time of explosion in Bodh Gaya, Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, along with several Buddhist pilgrims, was camping in the town to participate in the month-long Kalachakra puja.

The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police and the West Bengal Police have arrested some JMB terrorists and collaborators in the state over the past few years.

Five Indian states -- West Bengal (2,216 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km) -- share 4,096-km border with Bangladesh.

Though the large portions of the frontiers have barbed wire fencing, there are unfenced, mountainous, riverine borders prone to crime and smuggling, besides trans-border illegal movements.