By Monalisa Chaudhuri in The Telegraph, Mar 9, 2017
Kolkata: A Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh leader wanted in connection with the Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Dhaka’s Gulshan was arrested from a central Calcutta hideout earlier this week.
Mohammad Idris, one of the “most wanted” suspects in the July 1 café attack in which 20 people were killed, was hiding in the Burrabazar area, according to information passed on by a special cell of Delhi police to Calcutta police.
“There was specific information that Idris was shuttling between Hyderabad and Calcutta and was trying to recruit and radicalise youths for the cause of Rohingyas,” a source said.
Concentrated in western Myanmar, the Rohingyas are considered by the UN as the “most persecuted minority group in the world”
In Muslim-majority Bangladesh, there is considerable support for the Rohingya Muslims. As the persecution of Rohingyas is an emotive issue in Bangladesh, the JMB, intelligence sources said, is trying to use it to regroup after the Sheikh Hasina government cracked down on extremist elements after the café attack.
According to the information gathered by Delhi police, Idris was actively involved in the attack on the Gulshan café and he fled the country immediately thereafter to escape the Bangladeshi security agencies.
“He had sneaked into India and found shelter at a place in Colootola near Burrabazar at least three months ago. He was moving between Calcutta and Hyderabad and taking instructions from the JMB top leader Salhein to work for the cause of the Rohingyas,” an intelligence source said.
Salhein, according to the central agencies, heads both the Indian and Bangladeshi chapters of the JMB and is said to be hiding somewhere in India.
A fortnight ago, a Delhi police team had come to Calcutta and conducted an operation, jointly with the officers of the central Intelligence Bureau to pick up Idris. The operation, about which Calcutta police was not informed, had drawn a blank.
After the failed attempt, the central agencies had shared the information about Idris with Calcutta police and sought their assistance. Calcutta police arrested him from Colootola and handed him over to the special cell of the Delhi police earlier this week.
Sources said their counterparts in Bangladeshi counter-terrorism unit have been informed of the catch and if need be, they would be allowed to interrogate Idris.
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