NIA arrests two JMB members in Burdwan blast case

Kolkata, Jan 29 : The NIA has arrested two suspected Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) members from West Bengal's Hooghly district for their alleged involvement in the 2014 Burdwan blast case, the agency said on Tuesday.

The arrested members have been identified as Kadar Kazi alias Kadoor and Sajjad Ali.

"Both the JMB members were arrested in different operations on Monday. We arrested Kadar Kazi from Arambagh area in Hooghly district while his associate Sajjad Ali was held in a late night operation," a National Investigation Agency official said. 

The official said that Kazi was wanted in the Burdwan blast case and was also declared a proclaimed offender while Ali was involved in the activities of the JMB, a Bangladesh-based terror group. 

Both the accused will be produced before a special NIA court in Kolkata later on Tuesday. 

A bomb had ripped through a house in Khagragarh locality of Burdwan on October 2, 2014, killing two people and exposing a web of Bangladeshis running a virtual arms-and-explosive network in West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand. 

The NIA in March 2015 submitted a chargesheet in the case, saying terrorists were using territories in the three states to overthrow a democratic government in Bangladesh and replace it with a hardline Islamic regime.