Having made little headway in its probe in Burdwan blast, a team of NIA will visit Bangladesh next week to get inputs about the activities of terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) following the arrest of two of its cadre last week in the neighbouring country.
The key accused of the October 2 Burdwan blast, that left two dead, gave a slip to the West Bengal Police as well as to the National Investigation Agency and are believed to have fled to Bangladesh, official sources said.
The team's visit is tentatively fixed for November 9 and 10 and a senior officer of the NIA in the rank of Inspector General of Police will lead it, the sources said.
The NIA suspects the hands of JMB in the blast. It has announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for main accused Kausar, Nasirullah, Sajid (all believed to be Bangladesh nationals) and Talha Sheikh and Maulana Yusuf Sheikh (residents of West Bengal), all of whom are absconding.
Sources privy to the investigation said no substantial evidence has come there way about the terror plot of the group, which is stated to be targeting Bangladesh government leaders.
On October 2, the blast took place inside a house at Khagragarh in Burdwan in which suspected terrorist Shakil Ahmed died on the spot while his associate Sovan Mandal died in hospital.
Another person, Hasan Saheb, who was also injured in the blast, later gave some information to the central intelligence agencies that led to arrest of two women including wife of one of the dead men and six people from Assam, the sources said. However, after initial help in the arrests, neither the state police nor the NIA could make any headway in the case, they said.
The NIA, which was being assisted by the state police, was unable to prepare sketches of Sajid and another suspected Bangladeshi national Nasirullah who is also believed to have managed to escape.
During their visit to Bangladesh, the NIA team will seek information about Sajid and Nasirullah, the sources said.
The two people arrested from Assam could only give some information about the incident which included claims that Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) could have been smuggled into Bangladesh. However, they could not provide any information about how the explosives were transported.
Besides Sajid, Nasirullah and Kausar, cash rewards have been announced for Talha Sheikh and Maulana Yusuf Sheikh, Amjad Ali Sheikh, Habibur Rahman Sheikh, Sahanur Alom, Abdul Kalam, Burhan Sheikh, Rejaul Karim and Jahirul Shaikh.
During interrogation, Razira Biwi, Alina Biwi and Badrul Aalam spoke about the process of selecting hideouts, fabricating IEDs besides identifying, recruiting and indoctrinating youths from various madrasas, the sources said.
The arrested people also reportedly told interrogators that plans were afoot to create a terror network in West Bengal and Assam to build an Islamic state in Bangladesh as well as in the three West Bengal districts -- Murshidabad, Nadia, Malda -- through armed struggle.
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