A week before terrorists struck Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan Thana, National Investigation agency (NIA) had received inputs about illegal arms traffickers using Bihar's Munger area as a base to modify and assemble weapons before shipping the same to Maoists operating in Jharkhand.
On Tuesday the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime chief of Bangladesh, Monirul Islam , reportedly said that modification of arms used to carry out the July Dhaka terror attack was done in Munger city in Indian state of Bihar. The statement has yet again put Munger on radar of Indian based security agencies and police forces who were, just days before the Dhaka terror attack, in talks to set up a joint task force to counter illegal arms traffickers who were using Munger as a base to modify weapons.
A week before terrorists struck Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan Thana, National Investigation agency (NIA) had received inputs about illegal arms traffickers using Bihar's Munger area as a base to modify and assemble weapons before shipping the same to Maoists operating in Jharkhand.
dna on June 22 had reported that cadres of CPI (Maoist) operating in Jharkhand have been supplied with sophisticated M-16 rifles. The anti-terrorism squads (ATS) and special task forces (STF) from almost half-a-dozen states had been called for a meeting with NIA's top brass regarding the same issue.
The probe agency, in the last week of June, initiated talks with ATS and STF of Nagaland, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand to chalk out a strategy from stopping the highly-sophisticated weaponry from reaching cadres of CPI (Maoist) operating in Jharkhand. On July 1, however, five terrorists suspected to have owed allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), carried out the attack in which 24 people were killed including two police officers. Authorities in Dhaka however believe that consignment of AK22 rifles and some small arms reached the militants in the Bangladesh capital a month before the terror attack.
"A seal from a factory in Bihar was found on the three AK22 rifles recovered after the Gulshan terror attack," Islam was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune. Of these arms, three AK22 rifles were used in the attack while another rifle was used for the security of Neo Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh chief Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the paper said.
With Jama'atul Mujahideen suspected to have connections in India as well, and in light of latest revelations about Munger agencies in India are likely to see illegal arms trafficking as part of a international terror network
"We have come to know that the modification of these arms was done in Munger city in Bihar state of India and then they came to Chapainwabganj border," Monirul Islam was quoted.
Official sources in NIA had told dna that Munger in Bihar has been somewhat becoming an important transit point owing to its existing illegal arms markets. Munger is also home to several freelancers known for servicing and repair of sophisticated weapons such as M-16's.
According to officials, NIA sleuths probing arms smuggling in north-eastern states,have also managed to identified individuals allegedly involved in the smuggling of M-16's. The individuals, are likely part of a single syndicate and belong to Punjab, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland. In June sources had further told dna that investigators had come across transactions of 30-40 lakh rupees made into accounts of certain individuals who were already in radar for their alleged illegal activities.
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