A team consisting of officers of the Intelligence Bureau and RAW will soon leave for Bangladesh to question Bilal, wanted in the Surat blast case and other terror attacks in the country, government sources said. Bilal is also suspected of involvement in the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar in 1999 though his name does not figure in the chargesheet filed by the CBI in the hijack case.
Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday termed media reports on Bilal’s direct involvement in the Kandahar hijack as exaggerated. Bilal had returned to Bangladesh recently after serving 10 years in a prison in Guwahati.
Among those arrested in Bangladesh is alleged Pakistan terrorist Rezwan of Karachi, believed to be the Pakistani coordinator of the JeM in Bangladesh who was also a recruiter for operations in India. Top government sources said India hoped Bangladesh would hand over Belal after the authorities there finish their investigations. The sources said Belal is a Bangladeshi from Sylhet who married an Indian woman from West Bengal. Bilal used his Indian connection to carry out subversive activities in the country, the sources said.
JeM, founded by Maulana Masood Azhar, was responsible for the December 13, 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament House in New Delhi. The banned terror group was launched on January 31, 2000 by Azhar in Karachi after he and two other top militants were freed by the Indian government as part of a deal to secure the release of Indian passengers held hostage on board the hijacked aircraft in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Age Correspondent