Guwahati: Assam police have launched a massive operation to trace about 90 such explosive devices that are suspected to have been sent by Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) modules from Burdwan in West Bengal to carry terror strikes targeting the Bodo tribe leaders and Bodo people in Assam to avenge killing of Muslims in the state in a series riot in the past.
The operation has been launched in the wake of recovery of 10 powerful grenades and IEDs from Panbari area in western Assam on December 21 last.
Following the arrest of key JMB man in Assam, Sahanur Alam alias ‘doctor’, it had come to light that the JMB had hatched a design to target Bodo tribe leaders in Assam and supplied explosive materials for the purpose from its operation base in Burdwan.
A police source informed that plastic explosives were used in making the grenades and IED recovered on December 21 and similar materials were used in the bombs recovered from JMB hideouts in Burdwan in West Bengal.
Police said such explosives are hitherto not used in bombs and grenades used by insurgents from the Northeast.
The jihadis became active in Assam on a larger scale in the wake of communal riot in Bodoland areas of Assam between Bodos and Muslim in 2008Some Muslim youths from Assam were lured to undergo jihadi training in Bangladesh after 2012 communal riot involving the two communities.
The communal riots were outward manifestation atrocities perpetrated on non-Bodo communities including immigrant Muslims in Bodo tribe –dominated areas of Assam after formation of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTC).
More jihadis like Sahanur and Nurjamal Haque are suspected to be active in Assam.
A police source informed that the eight spells of communal riots that erupted in Bodoland areas of Assam during 1993 to 2012 total 774 persons were killed including 294 Muslim persons and 100 Bodo persons.