A special task force of West Bengal is looking into the waterway route that was allegedly routinely taken by a suspected terrorist of the banned Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM), Javed Ahmed Munshi, from West Bengal to Bangladesh.
On Monday, in a joint raid carried out by the Jammu and Kashmir police and the Special Task Force (STF) of West Bengal, Munshi was arrested, and two mobiles and a handwritten note with several numbers on it were seized, sources said.
According to police sources, Munshi had arrived in the Canning area a few days before his arrest, allegedly planning to exfiltrate into Bangladesh under instructions from TuM operatives who were allegedly his handlers.
According to sources, Munshi allegedly used to take a boat from Canning, South 24 Parganas and enter Bangladesh.
While sources said they are trying to decode the code, the main point of investigation is the waterway route used — as well as how many times he used it, whether he was recruiting people from West Bengal, and whether he was in charge of any sleeper cell in the state.
During preliminary interrogation, according to sources, Munshi allegedly admitted to having visited Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan multiple times using fake passports, acting on the instructions of his handlers.
Police said that they would be looking into who all Munshi has met in India, as well as into any social media groups or material that may have been exchanged online.
A court in Kolkata on Sunday granted Jammu and Kashmir police the transit remand of Munshi till December 31. Canning is located in the Sunderban delta. The Sundarbans forest sprawls over 10,000 sq km across India and Bangladesh, with 40% of it in India.
Javed Munshi, an alleged expert in IEDs and weapons handling, was accused of having a role in the 2011 murder of Shaukat Shah, a leader of the Ahl-i-Hadith, and has served multiple jail terms on terrorism-related charges.
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