Security in seven districts of Bengal is on high alert due to the Bangladesh-based JMB’s intentions for modules.

Security and intelligence networks, operated by both Central and state agencies, are under heightened alert after receiving intelligence regarding intentions of the Bangladesh-based fundamentalist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to establish modules in minority-heavy areas across seven districts of West Bengal.

Sources indicated that the intelligence information regarding the two-phase module development plan was mainly obtained through the questioning of the three recently apprehended JMB affiliates. Last month, two individuals were captured in Birbhum — Aazmal Hossain and Saheb Ali Khan — and one from South 24 Parganas, identified as Abasuddin Molla. Furthermore, data has also been collected through field inputs from investigators of central and state intelligence agencies.

Sources indicated that during the initial phase, the Bangladeshi extremist group focused on the districts of Malda, Murshidabad, and North Dinajpur to establish this module. Once the process is finished in these three districts, their subsequent four targets will be North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, and Birbhum districts.

A source within the state police stated that the strategy had been designed to encompass the most vulnerable areas in North Bengal and South Bengal.

North Dinajpur and Malda districts are situated in the northern part of the state, whereas the remaining five districts are found in the southern part. Except for Birbhum, all the other six districts share international borders with Bangladesh. Birbhum lacks such a border but serves as a crucial link between South Bengal and North Bengal through Murshidabad.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the multi-crore cattle-smuggling case indicated that Birbhum served as the primary transit route to Bangladesh through Murshidabad.  Youth brainwashing for sleeper cells involved JMB activists; police identified targeted minors. Arrested Abasuddin Molla linked to Pakistan, tying him to various extremist groups.