How a network of sleeper cells helped terror modules flourish in West Bengal

The Burdwan blast case, followed by the discovery of two bomb-making factories in Burdwan and Hooghly, all point out to one vital fact – that these events didn’t take place overnight. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on visiting the blast site had remarked, “ State is sitting on a ticking time bomb,” and cautioned Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, “Terror modules unearthed after the Burdwan blast had far more sinister designs than earlier believed.” The Burdwan blast case, followed by the discovery of two bomb-making factories in Burdwan and Hooghly, and of a Madrasa in Shimulia training girls to become future terrorists, all point out to one vital fact – that these events didn’t take place overnight; these were all works in progress whose foundations were laid a few years ago. According to central intelligence agencies, it took years to set up such a strong base of an organised terror network across West Bengal and wouldn’t have been possible without the support of local people. And now, the recent arrests of the key operators in Burdwan Blast case Sajid alias Masood Rana and Amjad Ali Sheikh by the National Investigation Agency on 10 November, have exposed how with the help of sleeper cells, different terror modules accomplished their sinister plans. These sleeper cells helped the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, especially the jihadis affiliated to JMB, HuJI etc in procuring ration card, passport, voter ID card and all sorts of documents to establish their Indian citizenship, tarnsfering money through hawala channel and also getting them married with local women in Bengal, like in the case of the main operative in Burdwan blast Shakil Ghazi, who got killed.