West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar made a startling disclosure on Saturday when he said that his state has become “home to illegal bomb-making.”
The governor’s statemenet came after National Intelligence Agency (NIA) foiled an attempt by terror group al-Qaeda to set up base in India by arresting nine terrorists from Kerala and West Bengal.
The raids were carried out at several locations in West Bengal’s Murshidabad and Kerala’s Ernakulam early on Saturday.
“State has become home to illegal bomb-making that has the potential to unsettle democracy. Police @MamataOfficial busy in carrying out political errands and taking on the opposition. Those at helm @WBPolice cannot escape their accountability for this alarming decline in law and order,” Mr Dhankhar tweeted.
In another tweet, he asked, “How far distanced is DGP @WBPolice from reality is cause of worry and added that his ‘Ostrich Stance’ is very disturbing.”
While Murshid Hasan, Iyakub Biswas, Mosaraf Hossein are from Ernakulam, Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman hail from Murshidabad.
A closely-monitored operation by the NIA and other central agencies started on September 11 when the premier investigating agency registered a case to probe the al-Qaeda module.
Apparently the plan of the terrorists was to convert crackers into an improvised Explosive Device (IED). During raids, the NIA recovered switches and batteries from Abu Sufiyan’s house.
A preliminary investigation revealed that arrested men were radicalized by Pakistan-based al-Qaeda on social media platforms. They were encouraged to launch several attacks, including in the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region).
Investigators seized digital devices, documents, jihadi literature, sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally-fabricated body armour, articles and literature for making home-made explosive devices from their possession.
It’s believed a few of the members were planning to travel to New Delhi to procure arms and ammunition.
