Kerala Becoming A Terror Haven? NIA’s Latest Arrests In Bodh Gaya Blast Case Confirms Agency’s Worry

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 3 August arrested two terror suspects from a migrant labour camp in Kerala, reports The New Indian Express.

The accused, identified as Mustafizur Rahman, 35, of Birbhum village in Bengal, and Abdul Karim of Murshidabad, also in Bengal, were reportedly responsible for planting Improvised Explosive Devices in Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, in order to kill the Dalai Lama, who was scheduled to visit the shrine on 20 January 2018.

The duo is said to belong to the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh. They were picked up from Kottakkal in Mallapuram district in Kerala, much to the shock of the Kerala police, which is believed to have had absolutely no clue about what was being planned in their backyard.

NIA sources said Rahman had been doing odd jobs under cover in Malappuram district, while indulging in terror plans on the sly. What has stunned the Kerala police is that these two had planned and executed the blast sitting in the southern state.

After arresting the duo, both were produced before a judge in Kochi and whisked away to Patna for further interrogation.

Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh is a banned terror outfit both in Bangladesh as well as India.

The NIA said that these two terror suspects planted explosives in the Bodh Gaya temple to avenge what they believed were atrocities against Rohingyas in Myanmar. Intelligence agencies now suspect that there are many more terror cells which are part of this dangerous game-plan to create instability in the country, and that many more Bangladeshi natives are part of this design.

Owing to the rise in migrant labour into Kerala, the state police is now faced with the challenge of identifying sinister elements among this mass of ‘outsiders’.

Over the past few years, top Maoist leaders such as Beecha Suguna and Malla Raji Reddy were also nabbed from Kerala.