Kolkata: India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has revealed that an Islamic State sympathizer it arrested six months ago had planned to attack the Mother House, the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata.

Managed by the order started by Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata, the house attracts a large number of American, British and European tourists and volunteers.

Mohammed Musa was arrested at West Bengal’s Burdwan railway station on July 4 from the Visva-Bharati Fast Passenger, He was carrying a knife.

“Musa wanted to kill American, British, Russian and other European tourists as retaliation to the offensive against Islamic State in the Middle East,” an NIA official said.

Musa was planning to kill a businessman to prove his mettle to his recruiters so that he was cleared for bigger attacks like the one he planned on the Mother House.

He also carried a camera to record the killing at the time of his arrest.

Hailing from Labhpur in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, Musa is now in the high-security Alipore Central Jail in Kolkata.

Officials of US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have already interrogated Musa for his alleged links with the perpetrators of the massacre at Dhaka’s Holey Artisan Bakery.

NIA officials say Musa had discussed his plans for attacks in Kolkata using mobile phone app Telegram with Abu Sulaiman, IS operative and alleged mastermind of the Dhaka attack.

Sulaiman has continued to evade arrest despite efforts by police in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states in India. He is believed to absconding in one of these states.

NIA officials say Musa was also maintaining close contacts with Indian Mujahideen operative Safi Omar and other radicals of IS and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (Assembly of Jihadists).

The charge sheet filed by the NIA against Musa reads: “A-1 (Md Mussa) discusses about some plan and selects Mother Teresa House as the target for terrorist attack in Kolkata and appraises that foreigners (British, Russians, Americans) are easily found there and tells that during the attack, A-1 would accompany.”

“A-1 discusses with the member on the other side about the locations of Mother Teresa House in Kolkata that is at Ripon Street, Sealdah Railway Station, Park Circus and tells that the foreigners viz. Russians, Britishers and Americans often visit that place and they can be attacked since they had bombarded the ISIS in Syria and Libya. He tells that the ISIS is accruing loss and advises the member to remain in disguise as a non-Muslim,” reads the NIA document.

The ‘member on the other side’ is not specified but appears to someone in Bangladesh.

But while Musa has been charged for anti-national activities under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, six other JMB activists arrested by Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force this year have not been booked under this act.

These six include Abdul Hossain Faruk, who heads the JMB’s Bengal unit, and Moulana Yusuf, the second-in-command and main accused in the Burdwan blast of 2014.

The others are Jahidul Sheikh alias Zaffar alias Jabirul; Mohammad Rafique alias Mohammed Rubel alias Pichchi; Shahidul alias Surya alias Shamim; and, Abdul Kalam alias Kalim

These six have been booked for forgery of identity documents and illegal possession of foreign exchange.

(Source: bdnews24)