DHAKA: In a major breakthrough in the Burdwan blast case, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) commander Sajid, the mastermind of this case in West Bengal, was arrested.

The disclosure came at Indian media on Saturday a day after NIA arrested Zia-ul-Haque, the key conspirator and a close aide of Sajid, from Malda in West Bengal on Friday, reports India’s Zee News. 

Sajid was arrested by West Bengal Police a couple of days back, official sources said on Saturday but refused to immediately divulge the exact location and circumstances leading to his arrest.

Sajid had been extensively questioned by the police and sleuths of central agencies about the functioning of JMB and its plans within the country and in Bangladesh.

Sajid is currently in custody of West Bengal Police.

The NIA had on Thursday detained a man in connection with this case and took him to Kolkata for questioning.

Sources in the NIA, probing the blast case, had said that the agency detained the person from near the Burdwan railway station.

The NIA had recently released photographs of the 12 suspects and announced a cash award of Indian Rs.5 lakh on Shahnur Alom.

Both Shahnur Alom and Sujina were on the wanted list of the NIA, which is probing the blast case.

Earlier, NIA officials had collected the viscera samples of Shakil Ahmed and Swapan Mondal alias Sovan who died in the Khagragarh blast in Burdwan on October 2 from the morgue here.

Another team of the NIA had gone to the Mangalkote police station and talked to the officer-in-charge of the police station, Sanjay Kundu, to collect information.

Two persons were killed in the accidental blast in a house at Khagragarh in Burdwan district while hand grenades were being manufactured there, leading to the unearthing of an international terror link to it.

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BDST: 1947 HRS, NOV 08, 2014