Bangla police team grills Masiuddin for link to IS, JMB

A three-member team of Bangladesh Police today interrogated suspected terrorist Mohammed Masiuddin who was arrested by the NIA last month for his link to terror groups like Islamic State and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.
According to a top National Investigation Agency (NIA) officer, the Bangladesh Police team came here to look into Masiuddin's role in fake currency being smuggled into India through Bangladesh.
"India and Bangladesh have a Standard Operating Procedure to tackle the fake currency issue. These officers from Bangladesh have come to look into Masiuddin's role in the fake currency issue and other aspects," the officer told PTI over phone from New Delhi.

Another source in the NIA said that the officers were also looking into Masiuddin alias Musa's link to Mohammad Suleiman, an important member of the JMB module in Bangladesh, who had played a crucial role in the recent terror attack on a restaurant in Dhaka's Gulshan area.
"Suleiman is believed to have played a crucial role in the Dhaka terror attack... And after grilling Masiuddin it was found that Musa was quite close to him. So the officers have arrived here to know more about his link to Suleiman," the source said.
Masiuddin, who was called as Abu Al Musa Al by leaders of the terror groups and was close to the former chief of the Islamic State (IS) in the country Shafi Armar, had met Suleiman at an event in Malda four months ago, the officer said.

In a joint raid by the NIA and West Bengal CID, Masiuddin was arrested from Viswabharati Fast Passenger train at Burdwan station last month.

During interrogation by the state CID, NIA and the IB, Masiuddin had revealed his connection to top leaders of at least two terror groups and admitted that he had been assigned to spread their tentacles in West Bengal and other places in the eastern part of the country.
A resident of Labhpur in West Bengal's Birbhum district, Masiuddin's phone records showed that he had communicated several times with people from Syria, Iraq and Bangladesh.
Masiuddin was using a mobile application to keep in touch with top leaders of terror groups in those three countries, CID sleuths had said.

Two of his accomplices Kallu Sheikh and Amin Sheikh were also arrested by the investigating agencies.
Masiuddin, who was staying in Tamil Nadu's Tiruppur with his family and two children, visited West Bengal this July after almost six years.