Kolkata: An arrested Islamic militant, who had allegedly planned to target foreign nationals at the Missionaries of Charity headquarters in Kolkata, tried to kill a prison official at Alipore Central Jail.

The incident occurred on November 3 morning when Gokul Chandra Dey, a jail warder in his fifties, went to take Mohammed Masihuddin alias Musa out of his cell as part of ‘Lock Out,’ a routine session that allows the prisoners to go out in a compound on the prison premises after the day starts.

“As the jail warder asked Musa to come out around 8 am, Musa started making Jehadi comments toward his fellow prisoners. As the jail warder intervened, he pushed him off to the ground and hit him with a piece of stone. He slashed his throat with a small but sharp iron rod used in PWD works in prison,” director general of police (correctional services) Arun Kumar Gupta said

Dey, who was posted on the job two years ago, was rescued by his colleagues and rushed to a nearby hospital, He was later shifted to Calcutta Medical Research Institute.

“His condition is stable now. A case under section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code has been initiated against Musa. An investigation is underway,” Gupta said.

Originally from Labhpur in Birbhum, the 25-year-old terror suspect was arrested by the criminal investigation department from the Burdwan railway station in July 2016 on charges of radicalizing youths to join ISIS.

He also reportedly had links to Jamaat-Ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), whose leader Abu Suleiman had met Musa at the latter’s sister’s wedding in March 2015.

Later, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took him in its custody to unearth ISIS network and its plots in the state. Musa was questioned by the Rapid Action Batallion of Bangladesh and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Musa has been lodged at the high security prison for over a year now.

In December last year, the NIA in a chargesheet accused Musa of plotting an attack on the Mother House to kill the American, British and Russian citizens – who visit the place on AJC Bose Road in south Kolkata to pay homage to its founder, Mother Teresa. The attack was planned to retaliate to the offensive against ISIS in the Middle East.

Musa came under the scanner of Indian security agencies after his e-mails and calls were traced to Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Syria.

According to the NIA, he had been in touch with several ISIS operatives, including leader Shafi Arman, in Syria through Facebook and Twitter. He was entrusted with building an ISIS module and recruitment base in West Bengal.

(Asian Age)