On Thursday, the NIA Special Court in Kolkata sentenced Bangladeshi national Rabiul Islam to five years of rigorous imprisonment in a terror conspiracy case. Islam, a member of the proscribed terrorist organization Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), was found guilty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Foreigners Act, 1946. He was also fined Rs 20,000.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case from the Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force in August 2021. Islam was among five individuals chargesheeted by the NIA, which uncovered his active involvement in JMB’s conspiracy to commit terror acts as part of the organization’s anti-India agenda. Investigations revealed that Islam had illegally infiltrated India and conspired to wage war against the nation by recruiting and motivating vulnerable Muslim youth.
On May 24, 2019, the Indian government declared JMB and its manifestations in India as terrorist outfits under Section 35 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), citing the group’s heightened activities in several states. The JMB, responsible for a 2016 terror attack at a popular café in Dhaka that killed 22 people, including 17 foreigners, has been attempting to expand its influence in India. The 2014 Burdwan blast case is related to a large-scale conspiracy by JMB aiming to wage war against the democratically established governments of India and Bangladesh.
In recent years, the NIA has made several significant arrests related to JMB’s activities:
September 2022: The NIA filed a chargesheet against six JMB members in the Bhopal case, involving the arrest of six active cadres, including three illegal Bangladeshi nationals, from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
November 2021: The NIA arrested a Bangladeshi national, Mohammad Abdul Mannan Bachu, in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district for his involvement in radicalizing vulnerable Muslim youths online and facilitating their recruitment by JMB and Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
December 2019: The NIA arrested Mosaraf Hossain, an active JMB member, in connection with the Bengaluru module case. Hossain was involved in subversive activities and had committed dacoities in Bengaluru to raise funds for JMB’s operations in India.
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These arrests underscore the NIA’s ongoing efforts to dismantle JMB’s network and prevent its attempts to destabilize the region.