The Centre has warned that Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an Islamic terror group is planning to set up permanent bases along India-Bangladesh borders and expand to South India to establish Caliphate in the Indian subcontinent.
"Investigations have revealed JMB's plan of making permanent bases within 10-kilometres, along the India-Bangladesh border in the districts of states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura and plans of spreading its network in South India with an overarching motive to establish Caliphate in Indian sub-continent," the ministry of home affairs said in a recent notification, in which it put the JMB in the list of banned organisations under the Unlawful (Activities Prevention) Act 1967.
The JMB came into being in Bangladesh in 1998 with the aim to establish Caliphate through Jihad. Caliphate is an Arabic word, which means an Islamic state under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title caliph, a person considered a political-religious successor to Prophet Mohammad.
"The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and its formations like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Hindustan and their manifestations have committed acts of terrorism, promoted acts of terrorism and have been engaged in radicalisation and recruitment of youths for terrorist activities in India. The JMB was engaged in recruitment and raising funds for terrorist activities, procurement of explosives/chemicals and assembling of Improvised Explosive Devices," said the notification.
Activities of JMB in India came into light during an investigation by National Investigation of India (NIA) into the cases related to bomb blasts in Burdwan in Bengal on October 2, 2014, and Bodh Gaya (Bihar) on January 19, 2018. Assam police have also found involvement of JMB in five cases, in which 55 cadres of the terror group were arrested.
India shares 4, 156km borders with Bangladesh, including 2,117km in West Bengal, 856km in Tripura, 443km in Meghalaya, 262km in Assam and 180km in Mizoram. According to security officials here, “illegal migrants” crossing the borders are expanding the network of a terrorist group like JMB in India. “The ban on JMB will definitely help us deal with the organisation with stern hands and prevent the expansion of their networks to rest of the country,” one of them said.