Coded messages link 2 JMB men to other extremist groups

The West Bengal Police recovered several coded and encrypted messages from the mobile phones of Aazmal Hossain and Saheb Ali Khan, the two Indian associates of Bangladesh-based Islamic fundamentalist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who were arrested on Friday from Nalhati in Birbhum district, which hint at their links with other fundamentalist groups.

- AGENCIES

Sources said that some of these coded messages had references of groups like Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HUT), and Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), all being identified as fundamentalist groups with the last two entities being very active in the recent past to open sleeper cells in the Indo-Bangladesh bordering and minority dominated districts in West Bengal like Murshidabad and Malda.

While Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind has its roots in Jammu and Kashmir the main bases of the other two are in Bangladesh, with a focus on spreading their network in bordering districts of West Bengal.