kolkata

Updated: May 26, 2018 15:00 IST

Murshidabad police arrested two youths on Thursday night and seized bomb making chemicals weighing 98 kg that was allegedly being sent to a banned militant outfit in Bangladesh.

Manglu Khan and Sadekul Khan, both 30, were arrested from Nimtita in Murshidabad district. The chemicals were hidden in a garden.

“Primary investigation has revealed that the two used to sell bomb making materials to members of a banned outfit in Bangladesh. The border between India and Bangladesh is not far from the spot where the two were arrested,” said a district intelligence branch officer on condition of anonymity.

Read: JMB’s Nasirullah, responsible for Burdwan blast, held in Bangladesh

“We suspect that the outfit to which they earlier supplied explosive chemicals is either Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) or Ansarullah Bangla Team,” said the officer.

In October 2014, an explosion at Khagragarh in Burdwan in which two persons died, led to the discovery of a improvised explosive device (IED) factory and a terror racket that was run in Bengal mainly by members of JMB. The outfit is banned in Bangladesh.

Read: NIA gets police remand of six Burdwan blast accused till Oct 27

“We have come to know that these outfits in Bangladesh are finding it difficult to procure explosives since the Sheikh Hasina government has launched a drive against terror. These outfits have started collecting explosive materials from Bengal with help from sympathisers in India. It seems this consignment was scheduled to reach Bangladesh in the next few days,” the officer added.

“There are several criminal cases pending against the two,” said Amit Bhakat, officer-in-charge of Shamsherganj police station.

Read: Bangladesh’s most wanted terror duo launches Indian unit

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigation into the Khagragarh explosion unearthed the network in districts such as Burdwan, Birbhum and Murshidabad. Indian agencies arrested more than two dozen of the 34 accused in the Burdwan blast case. Two of them were women. Most of the suspects, including the women, are Bangladeshis.

Police officers on Friday said Manglu Khan and Sadekul Khan bought explosive chemicals from an arms dealer in Jharkhand. They sell these to local criminals as well. They have allegedly sold more than one tonne explosives to gangs in Malda and Murshidabad. Murshidabad police were looking for the duo for quite some time.