Terrorism-related incidents in West Bengal, 2007-2009

2009

July 12: Two persons were killed in a bomb blast at Ghoraberia Damupara in the Howrah District. Police were enquiring into the cause of the explosion. Meanwhile, the identities of the two victims were also being ascertained.
April 12-13: The West Bengal Police arrested a HuJI-B militant, identified as Mufti Ibrahim, from an apartment at Ashwini Nagar in Baguihati of North 24 Parganas District. Ibrahim was reportedly the mastermind in the grenade attack on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh in 1999 and is the nephew of HuJI-B commander Mufti Abdul Hannan. He hails from Kotalipara in Gopalgunge and joined the HuJI-B after Hannan returned from Afghanistan in 1993 where he fought for Taliban.
April 5: A LeT militant, identified as Shahanawaz alias Chandan, was arrested by the Special Task Force from Lalgola in the Murshidabad District. Shahanawaz, an explosives expert, reportedly hails from Raghunathganj in Mushidabad. Police records show that he was also involved in human trafficking earlier.
March 19: Shawaz Ismail (27), a former Pakistan Rangers soldier, who was apparently headed for Kashmir to ‘revive’ the Al-Badr militant group was arrested in the vicinity of Writers’ Buildings in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal. This is the second such arrest in the city in less than a fortnight. Earlier on March 6, LeT explosives expert Abu Taher was arrested from the Sealdah railway station. Shawaz Ismail is reported to have confessed to having served with the Pakistani border guards - service number R39409. He also admitted to be an Al Badr operative. Security sources said he was going to replace the outfit’s head of operations in Kashmir. Investigation has revealed that Ismail was sent from Karachi to Bangladesh a few months ago. From Dhaka, he moved to the India-Bangladesh border a couple of days ago and sneaked in through the Rajshahi-Malda corridor on March 18. After entering India, Ismail boarded a Howrah-bound train from Murshidabad. Security Forces arrested him in the busy BBD Bag area. Additional Commissioner of Police (STF), Rajeev Kumar, said Ismail was supposed to take a train from Howrah to Jammu and Kashmir.
March 18: Two civilians, identified as trader Sanatan Das and Akhil Adhikary, were killed and at least 17 others were injured when a powerful bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded at a busy marketplace in the Alipurduar town of Jalpaiguri District in West Bengal. Police suspected the involvement of Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) - its "10th batch trained in Bangladesh - and the ULFA in the blast to destabilize North Bengal before the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) election.
March 6: The Kolkata Police arrested a suspected LeT explosives expert, identified as Abu Taher alias Mohammad Zakaria, at Sealdah railway station when he was stepping out of Lalgola Passenger train. Taher confessed that he had fled to Rajshahi in Bangladesh in 1997 after carrying out low-intensity blasts in Delhi, Ludhiana in Punjab and Rohtak in Haryana. Taher is reportedly close to the LeT’s Bangladesh chief, Abdul Karim Tunda, who had sent him to the LeT headquarters in Muridke near Lahore in Pakistan to be trained in handling explosives.
January 25: Two children, Goutam Oraon and Ravi Oraon, were injured when a low intensity bomb exploded in the Sonapur area of Jalpaiguri District.
January 12: A Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist, identified as Safique Iliyas alias Deepak, was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from Malda District. Safique, a resident of Rajshahi in Bangladesh, was instructed to spy on the movement of Army personnel in Siliguri, CID officials said. Safique had planned to set up a shop near the Army establishment in Siliguri to execute his job, Gupta said, adding "Safique had confessed that he helped two Lashkar-e-Toiba men to cross over to India via the international border in the State last year. One of them, Sikandar-e-Azaam, was later arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in June." The Delhi Police had reportedly arrested him in 1998 on the charge of transporting RDX from Bangladesh to Uttar Pradesh during 1997-98. He was lodged in the Tihar jail till 2003, before being granted bail and escaping to Bangladesh. Nine pre-activated SIM cards, fake Indian currency worth INR 50,000 and a forged voter identity card were recovered from him.

2008

December 26: Intelligence sources reported that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's external intelligence, was planning to explode bombs in major towns of West Bengal, including the capital Kolkata. Sources in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) indicated that a group of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI) terrorists has made repeated attempts to enter India recently from Bangladesh. "There is a possibility that some HuJI terrorists have already crossed over with arms and ammunition and are heading to team up with KLO, Indian insurgent group, to carry out lethal terror strikes in West Bengal during end-December and early January," sources said.
December 18: The Subsidiary Intelligence Branch (SIB) of West Bengal said that an eight-member team, including HuJI terrorists from Pakistan and KLO cadres, has sneaked into the State through the Bangladesh border. Two HuJI leaders from Pakistan, Alimuddin Quraishi and Jaimuddin Ali, apparently led the group from Ranisankhoil to help them cross the border.
December 5: The Kolkata Police arrested two more terrorists, identified as Tausif Rehman and Mukhtar Ahmed, from different locations in connection with the November 26 Mumbai multiple terrorist attack. While Tausif was arrested from West Bengal, Mukhtar, who was a constable in the Jammu and Kashmir Police, was arrested from the same State. Both Tausif and Mukhtar were reportedly linked to the SIM cards used by the terrorists who attacked Mumbai.
November 19: The Kolkata Police arrested an ISI agent, identified as Abdul Kasem, a citizen of Bangladesh, from the New Market area. Three Bangladeshi passports issued in the names of Nazrul, Ratan and Shah Alam was recovered from his possession. "His antecedents suggest that he was a spy. He was arrested in Jalpaiguri under the Official Secrets Act and different documents with sensitive information seized from him. There is a case under the Official Secrets Act against him pending in Rajasthan," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Intelligence), Javed Shamim, said.
August 7: The Border Security Force (BSF) arrested three Bangladeshi nationals while they were trying to cross over into India, from Doulatpur border in the Baisnabnagar area of Malda District. Three mobile phones, US $16,000, INR 16,000 and maps of different parts of India were seized from them. Intelligence officials suspect that Mohammed Dulal, Mohammed Hasu and Mohammed Altaf hailing from Habiganj District, could be HuJI-B militants. The arrested persons, in the age group of 20-25, were handed over to Police on August 8 and later produced in the court, which remanded them to Police custody for nine days.
July 23: A BSF trooper was killed and a villager injured in intermittent exchange of fire that lasted nearly two hours between the BSF and personnel of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) across the border in West Bengal's Malda District. This was the second exchange of fire between the two forces across West Bengal's border with Bangladesh within a week. Two BDR soldiers were killed in the previous incident.
July 16: West Bengal Police arrested a Pakistani national, suspected to be an ISI agent, from a hotel in Bagdogra on the outskirts of Siliguri town. Some documents and maps showing details of Army installations in north Bengal were recovered from the arrested person identified as Abid Khan alias Samir Ahmed Sagar, who did not possess a passport.
May 30: Abbas Ali, a resident of Islampur in the New Jalpaiguri District, was arrested at Panitanki under Kharibari Police station on the border with Nepal by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel along with 350-gm of "high intensity" and 2.5-kg of "low intensity" explosives, four detonators and a wire to be used as fuse. Rajesh Tikku, Deputy Commandant of the 22nd Battalion of the SSB's Ranidanga sector headquarters, said, "Based on a tip-off, our intelligence wing caught Ali at Doodhgate in Panitanki, 40km from here, when he was trying to cross over to Nepal with his friend yesterday. The friend, however, escaped." The SSB is yet to find out the motive behind smuggling the explosives but confirmed that Ali was headed towards Nepal.
May 12: A truck driver was killed and three persons were injured when a bomb kept in a plastic container hanging from a bicycle exploded near a tin shade alongside National Highway 31C in Barobisha of Alipurduar in West Bengal. Alipurduar Additional Superintendent of Police S. R. Mishra said an unidentified extremist group had planted the bomb. "We suspect that a timer was used to set it off", he said.
April 26: An arms smuggler and a linkman of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), identified as Pradip Das alias Phagua, was arrested from his house at Botun in the West Dinajpur District. Police sources said Das was regularly smuggling arms to Bangladesh for the KLO and also helped the militants enter and leave Bangladesh.
April 24: The West Bengal Police arrested one People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) militant, 'capt.' Boiyai, when he was trying to board a Jet Airways flight for Bangkok using a passport in the name of one Akash Sharma of Manipur at Kolkata International Airport. A briefcase containing some important files was recovered from his possession. He reportedly belonged to Moirang Khunou in the Bishnupur District of Manipur.
April 11: Three persons were injured when two bombs exploded in quick succession near the Alipurduar rail station in West Bengal.
April 3: At least three persons, including a woman, were killed in a bomb blast inside a house in the Siliguri District. A senior Police officer said, "The bomb was a powerful improvised explosive device and we are trying to find out what the people inside were up to." Police said they were investigating their links with several Madheshi groups operating in the nearby Terai region of Nepal.
January 16: Two Bangladeshi nationals, with suspected links to the ISI, were arrested from the Shibpur area of Howrah District in West Bengal. "Shamim Akhtar and Sheikh Alamgir were arrested on a tip-off from a former jawan of the Central Reserve Police Force whom they were trying to recruit," said Rajeev Kumar, Inspector General of Police (Special Operations). Believed to be part of the ISI's espionage module, they were engaged in recruiting ex-servicemen to extract strategic information, he added.
January 10: A suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) cadre, Abbas Khan alias Akhdas Khan alias Mohsin Alam, was arrested for his alleged involvement in a fake currency racket in capital Kolkata, by the detective department from a house at Chamru Singh Lane in East Kolkata's Narkeldanga area. He had earlier been convicted by a Gujarat court for the Godhra violence but was released on bail. He had jumped parole and remained untraceable.

2007

December 28: In a joint operation, the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force arrested Aftab Alam Ansari, a top militant belonging to the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), from the Cossipore area in the northern part of capital Kolkata. Ansari is suspected to be one of the masterminds behind the serial bomb blasts in the court premises at Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on November 23, 2007.
December 20: Seven persons, including three women, who were linked to the Manipur-based People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), were arrested from a flat at Bapuji Nagar near Jadavpur University in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal. They were identified as 'sgt major' M. German, T. Gunindro, K. Suresh, Sonamani, Geeta, Rojita and Rita. According to Police sources, German and Gunindro were PREPAK militants involved in the financial matters of the outfit. The others were suspected to be sympathisers of the outfit. Two CDs, documents and some cameras were recovered from them.
November 8: A front ranking leader of an unknown faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), identified as V. Tucfu alias T. Sema, was arrested by the Security Forces (SFs) at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International airport in Kolkata. Several 9-mm pistol cartridges were recovered from his possession. He was arrested during security check before boarding a Delhi-bound flight.
July 27: Ramchandra Roy alias Rakesh, a Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) militant, and Ajoy Singha, a linkman of the outfit, were arrested from Samuktala in the Jalpaiguri District.
July 19: Sarfaraz Alam alias Pappu, an arms dealer, was arrested near Chaplin Cinema in Kolkata with an improvised 7.62 mm pistol with five rounds and a spare magazine with five rounds.
July 14: Police arrested a HuJI cadre, identified as Nur Islam, who allegedly functioned as a 'carrier' of the outfit from the North 24-Parganas District. Nur Islam was an associate of HuJI militant Jalaluddin arrested in Uttar Pradesh on June 23.
June 30: Three persons, including two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) militants, were arrested from Sultanpur village in the Howrah District. Superintendent of Police N K Singh said that they raided the house of one Sheikh Samsuddin under Jagacha Police station and arrested the duo, Mohammed Raj and Mohammed Zakir, and a civilian identified as Samsuddin. Fake passports, visas and forged travel documents were recovered from them. Singh said that the HM militants had come to Kolkata from Delhi on June 17 and were looking for a transit route to Bangladesh.
May 21: Police, during a routine security check, found and later defused an explosive in a train in Kolkata. The train was headed for Tarakeshwar, about two hours west of Kolkata.
May 20: The West Bengal Police arrested, Mohammed Sayeed from Jamtara District in the State of Jharkhand in connection with the May 18 Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh. A cell phone operator in Kolkata's Jodasankho area, Sayeed reportedly sold the SIM card that was later used in the Hyderabad blast. He said that that the SIM card was sold to an unidentified person on the basis of a driving licence of Babulal Yadav of Asansol, who later turned out to be non-existent.
April 1: The Border Security Force (BSF) personnel arrested four foreign nationals, including three Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) cadres, at the India-Bangladesh border from Petrapol in the North 24 Parganas District. BSF sources said that the four were arrested while trying to enter Indian Territory.
February 22: A polythene bag containing several explosives was recovered by the Railway Protection Force personnel from a general compartment of the Sealdah-Varanasi Express at Dhanauri station.
January 29: Police in the Jalpaiguri District arrested five persons with a cache of arms and ammunition stolen from an army depot in the cantonment town of Binnaguri. Three grenades, 17 live cartridges of 8.5 caliber guns and two live AK-47 cartridges were recovered from their possession.

Source: Compiled from English language media sources.