Burdwan: Rumi and Amina Bibi were part of Jammat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh's female hit squad

KOLKATA: Rumi Bibi and Amina Bibi and the three yet-to-be-identified women who put up at the 'IED factory' at Burdwan's Khagragarh and Baburbagh were part of Jammat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh's female "hit squad" that was formed 10 years ago, say security sources.
The secretive squad has only 25 members and is trained to execute grenade attacks. However, their main duties involve religious teaching and indoctrination, say sources.

NIA and other central agencies have accessed the CID interrogation report of the two arrested women and gone through information provided by Bangladeshi security agencies. They feel the jihadi literature recovered from Khagragarh suggests that Rumi and Amina used to spread the terror outfit's ideology.

The two had attended the same madrassa at Simulia in Purulia and the terror module's operatives regularly visited a few cultural and educational institutions at Mangolkot in Burdwan and a girls' only madrassa in Murshidabad, say sources. Police have found documents to prove this in slain terrorist Shakil Ahmed's Beldanga house on Wednesday.

The women cell's existence was first known in 2009 when Bangladesh police arrested a number of alleged Jammat female terrorists. The outfit was involved in suicide attacks in 2005 when they triggered blasts in 63 of the 64 districts.

The Khagraghar squad members were initiated by Simi operative Haroon Rashid, who was arrested by STF in Sealdah towards end-2012, say the sources. The women were asked to recruit Indians as the Sheikh Hasina government was stepping up pressure in Bangladesh, the sources say. The women are tech-savvy, as is evident from a Skype ID found in Shakil's second hideout at Babubagh in Burdwan.

Interrogations of top Jammat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh operative Maulana Saidur last year revealed that in 2010 the outfit had managed to establish presence in three West Bengal districts-Malda, Nadia and Murshidabad-and had around 25 Indian and Bangladeshi members.

"The Indian wing provides logistical support as well as guns and bomb-making equipment," said Animesh Roul, director of research at the New Delhi-based Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict.

In January 2011, members of an alleged "JMB suicide squad" issued threats to assassinate Sheikh Hasina and blow up Chittagong Central Jail and Chittagong court unless arrested JMB terrorists were released. The outfit is building support in madrassa and urban ghettos in Dhaka as well as Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Rajshahi, Jhalakati and Naogaon districts.

They chose Khagragarh in Burdwan although it is hundreds of miles from the border and Beldanga (85km from the border) because there are over 400 madrassas in these areas. Also, people here are well educated and the localities are thickly populated.

Similar indoctrination material and training guides were seized during the arrest of JMB's propaganda chief Abdul Ghani and two others in March 2011. This indicates that the Burdwan cell may have been acting on orders from their Bangaldeshi handlers.