Terror has new name: Jama’at-ul-Mujahideen

Mateen Hafeez | TNN

Mumbai: Intelligence agencies are working on inputs that members of the Jama’at-ul-Mujahideen (Bangladesh) may be in Mumbai and Hyderabad to work on terror plots in these two cities.

The Indian Mujahideen and the Deccan Mujahideen have been on the local security agencies’ radar for some time, but this is the first time that the Bangladesh-based outfit has emerged as a possible player in Mumbai.

The JMB, officials said, had been facing problems ever since the change of government in Bangladesh. “The Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League has shown much greater sensitivity to India's concerns than the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of Begum Khaleda Zia and reports here indicate that the JMB is trying to expand its operations to western and southern India because it is under intense pressure in its homeland,” a senior home department official said. The organisation was banned in Bangladesh in 2005 (after it was found to be responsible for 500 blasts all over Bangladesh in one day), before the Hasina regime came to power, but an “allout crackdown” came only after a change in government.

Security agencies here have also received intelligence inputs that some JMB cadres have been pushed to Sri Lanka, from where they plan to enter India by sea. “Increased surveillance and cooperation by Indian and Bangladeshi forces on the Indo-Bangla border is forcing them to look for other routes through which to enter India,” an official said. The Intelligence Bureau (IB), in an alert, has said at least 30 suspected JMB cadres had reached the Negombo area in Sri Lanka and were being assisted by narco-peddler Jaleel alias Ravi. “The head of this unit is a person called Moosa. Uncorroborated reports indicate that 10-15 men from this group are trying to enter India. Everyone in this group is under 28,” the alert stated. It also says Jaleel alias Ravi “reportedly” operates from Tamil Nadu and Kerala. “Uncorroborated reports suggest that another group may be already present in Mumbai and Hyderabad,” the input said.

The IB has alerted the coastal police and sent these inputs across the country. The input also specifies a boat that is likely to be used for ferrying them to Indian shores; the fishing boat is called Jameela and its registration number is KPT 0173.

The JMB was founded in 1998 at Palampur, Dhaka, by Sabir Quazi. Its avowed aim is to replace the current state of Bangladesh with an Islamic state based on Sharia.

The Times of India, December 10, 2009