india

Updated: Jul 02, 2019 22:38 IST

The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police has arrested Abdul Rahim, a suspected Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) member who was part of the module that carried out the January 2018 Bodh Gaya blast, an STF statement said on Tuesday.

Rahim was picked up from a bus stop at Bajepratappur Charkhumbha on Katwa road from Bengal’s east Burdwan district at 7.20 pm on Monday, the statement said. STF officials aware of developments said on condition of anonymity that the arrest was made on a tip-off from a “credible source” of information. “He [Abdul Rahim] is an active member of JMB Dhulian module in West Bengal.

The Dhulian module was responsible for the 2018 Bodh Gaya blast. Abdul Rahim took part in recruitment of the said module and logistically helped them,” said the statement, adding he had been absconding since the blast.

The JMB is a banned terror outfit in Bangladesh whose objective is to overthrow the elected governments in Dhaka and Delhi and replace them with a caliphate.

On January 19 last year, a low-intensity improvised explosive device went off under a tree in the Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodh Gaya hours after Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, finished an address there. There were no casualties.

Security personnel later found two live bombs in boxes: one near gate number 4 of the temple; and another near a Sri Lankan monastery.