New Delhi: A team of officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently questioned the Jamaat-ul- Mujahideen Bangladesh operative Mohammed Masiuddin, alias Abu Musa, who is lodged in a Kolkata jail to get more information on his Syria-based handler Shafi Armar. Amar, the FBI believes, is planning to target American assets and nationals.
FBI happens to be the second international agency to question Musa, who was earlier interrogated by the Bangladesh Police, also in connection with the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1 in which 22 people were killed, mostly foreigners.
Sources claimed the FBI team questioned Musa for more than five hours recently and it was primarily focused on activities of Armar, alias Yosuf Al-Hindi, who is believed to be planning attacks on American assets and nationals across the world. Armar, 40, is a native of Bhatkal in North Karnataka, and is suspected to have contacted some radicalised American youth who are planning to join or have already been roped in by ISIS.
FBI also shared details of Musa’s questioning with the NIA which was permitted on reciprocal basis as the US agencies too have been helping Indian security agencies in terror-related cases.
Musa was arrested in July this year in a joint operation by the NIA and West Bengal CID from Burdwan in connection with a bomb explosion there in October, 2013. During interrogation, Musa gave details of his connections with top leaders of at least two terror groups and was assigned the task expanding the terror network in West Bengal and other areas in the eastern part of the country.
Musa’s phone records had revealed that he was in touch with people from Syria, Iraq and Bangladesh. He was using a mobile application to keep in touch with top leaders of terror groups in the three countries, NIA sources said.
