– Shabana Javed
Kolkata: Nearly 10 years after the Khagragarh blast case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has summoned a Congress leader and teacher from Murshidabad and a toto driver.
Among those summoned are Abdul Jabbar, a Congress leader and primary school teacher from Murshidabad, and Aziz, a toto driver from Beldanga’s Battala area. They have been asked to appear by 12 noon on Tuesday. The summons are linked to the October 2, 2014 blast that occurred in a house in Khagragarh, near Burdwan town, while bombs were being assembled. The explosion resulted in the deaths of two suspected militants. Another individual was arrested at the time. The incident was later linked to the banned terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Abdul Jabbar, who teaches at a primary school in Murshidabad’s Sagar Para police station area, is known as a Congress leader in the area. Acknowledging receipt of the notice, he said, “I will not talk about a conspiracy. However, I do not know anything about the incident in which I have been summoned. However, when I am summoned, I will definitely appear.”
On the other hand, Aziz has a troubled family. In the words of the toto driver, “A family of deprivation. Five people depend on my toto to survive. I do not know anything about why I have been summoned. I do not even have money to travel to Kolkata. I will see how I can go.”
The NIA investigated the incident. Recently, the name of Sadiq alias Tariqul Islam, one of the masterminds of the Khagragarh blast case, a member of JMB, has come up again through several people caught in the net of the Assam STF. It is alleged that Abbas Ali, a resident of Hariharpara in Murshidabad and a member of Ansarullah Bangla Team, took ‘lessons’ from Tariqul in jail. Last week, the NIA also summoned two residents of Murshidabad named Habibur Rahman and Golam Kibria on charges of anti-national activities.
