[The alleged conspiracy was discovered after two members of the group were killed in an explosion while building homemade bombs at a house in West Bengal earlier this month. Indian police say the militants were Bangladeshis and were using India as a safe haven to plan the attacks.]
By Rupam Jain Nair and Andrew MacAskill
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has uncovered a
suspected plot by banned Bangladeshi militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen to
assassinate the country's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and carry out a coup,
three senior Indian security officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
India
will hand over a dossier to Bangladesh with details of the plan by members of
the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which has carried out scores of attacks in India's
eastern neighbour, the government and police officials said.
Bangladesh
did not comment directly on the assertions that Hasina had been the target of a
plot, but said it had tightened security on the border with India.
Mainly-Muslim
Bangladesh has suffered three major army coups and two dozen smaller rebellions
since gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971 in a war that killed and
displaced millions.
The
alleged conspiracy was discovered after two members of the group were killed in
an explosion while building homemade bombs at a house in West Bengal earlier
this month. Indian police say the militants were Bangladeshis and were using
India as a safe haven to plan the attacks.
"The
strategy was to hit the political leaders of the country and demolish the
democratic infrastructure of Bangladesh," said a senior Indian Home
(interior) Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"This
was all being planned on Indian soil and we could have been blamed if
there was an attack."
Indian
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Monday visited the house where the
blasts took place and met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to discuss
the situation.
The
revelations come against a backdrop of political friction earlier this year
between nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Banerjee.
On
one campaign stop in West Bengal before his general election victory in May,
Modi said illegal immigrants from Bangladesh should get their "bags packed"
if he came to power.
Analysts
said the speech sought to mobilise Modi's Hindu support base against Banerjee,
who leads a regional party in West Bengal that is backed by many of the Muslims
who make up a quarter of the state's 90 million population.
Asaduzzaman
Khan, Bangladesh's junior home minister, said Dhaka had been tipped off about a
possible militant plot.
"We
have received this information unofficially from India about a terror threat to
top politicians in Dhaka. This is the first time there has been such
information," said Khan.
"We
are always serious about curbing the activities of the militants. After the
news from India our (security) efforts have been raised manifold."
West
Bengal Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee declined to comment.
Modi
reached out to leaders of neighbouring countries as soon as he was elected,
inviting them to his inauguration as prime minister, and he sent his foreign
minister to Dhaka to establish friendly relations. However, border disputes and
water sharing remain unresolved issues between the two countries.
MASSIVE
ATTACKS
The
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen also planned to assassinate the country's main opposition
leader, Khaleda Zia, the Indian officials said. Prime Minister Hasina and her
chief rival, Zia, have dominated the country's politics for more than a decade.
The
security officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to
speak on the record, did not say how the militants planned to carry out the
assassinations.
The
outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujihadeen detonated nearly 500 bombs almost simultaneously
on one day in 2005 across Bangladesh, including in the capital, Dhaka.
Its
militants later carried out suicide attacks on several courthouses, killing 25
people and injuring hundreds.
Earlier
this year, gunmen opened fire and tossed bombs at a security van carrying
members of the group on the way to court.
"The
group were a very serious threat in 2005 and up to 2008, but they have now been
very badly decimated," said Ajay Sahini, executive director of the
Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi that monitors militant groups
across South Asia.
"The
group's leadership has been eroded, which means their planning capability and
capacities for execution have been seriously limited."
India
has arrested at least six people tied to the coup plot, according to the NIA,
the law enforcement institution investigating the case.
Local
police found nearly five dozen crude bombs and arrested two women who were
living in the same house and were trying to burn bomb-making manuals after the
incident. In a nearby home police found 35 unexploded bombs.
(Additional
reporting by Serajul Quadir in Dhaka and Sujoy Dhar in New Delhi; Editing by
Douglas Busvine, John Chalmers and Mark Heinrich)
