India hands dossier to Bangladesh on terror plots

Published November 19, 2014
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. — Reuters/File
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. — Reuters/File

DHAKA: India has handed Bangladesh a list of 11 men suspected of plotting attacks including one targeting its prime minister, officials said on Wednesday, as the two countries tighten security cooperation against militants.

Indian security officials uncovered the plot against Sheikh Hasina last month after two members of a banned Bangladesh group were killed in an explosion while building bombs in India's West Bengal state just over the border from Bangladesh.

The men were believed to be members of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh who were using India as a safe haven to plan the attacks.

The plot deepened concern in India that militant groups were setting up bases in the east of the country while security forces have been focused on the threat from Pakistan-based militants on the more heavily guarded western flank.

A team headed by the chief of India's National Investigations Agency, the main counter-terrorism arm, held talks with Bangladeshi officials in Dhaka and handed over the list of suspects thought to be hiding there, Mufti Mahmud Khan, an official of the Rapid Action Battalion said.

Under Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has been working closely with India to tackle militant groups including handing over people that India suspects of stirring trouble in the remote northeast region.

Khan said Bangladesh had given the Indian team its own list of wanted men — 51 in all, most of them suspected of criminal acts who had slipped across the porous border into India.

The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was thought to have been lying low since authorities cracked down on it after it detonated nearly 500 bombs almost simultaneously on one day in 2005 across Bangladesh, including in the capital, Dhaka.

Its militants later carried out suicide attacks on several courthouses, killing 25 people and wounding hundreds.

Opinion

Editorial

Running on empty
Updated 22 Mar, 2025

Running on empty

World Water Day should remind country’s rulers that water crisis threatens the very survival of our future generations.
Another ultimatum
22 Mar, 2025

Another ultimatum

THESE are fraught times, but the government must still find it in its heart to be a little more accommodating....
Muzzled voices
22 Mar, 2025

Muzzled voices

A NEW era of censorship is upon us. The FIA’s arrest of journalist and founder of media agency Raftar, Farhan...
Personal priorities
Updated 21 Mar, 2025

Personal priorities

Pet projects launched by govt often found to be poorly conceived, ripe for exploitation, misaligned with country’s overall development priorities.
Inheritance rights
21 Mar, 2025

Inheritance rights

THE Federal Shariat Court’s ruling that it is un-Islamic to deprive a woman of her right to inheritance is a...
Anti-Muslim actions
21 Mar, 2025

Anti-Muslim actions

MUSLIMS in India have endured incessant scrutiny of their nationalism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ...