An Indian court has sentenced Jahidul Islam Mizan alias ‘Boma Mizan’, a leader of banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), to 29 years in jail on terrorism-related charges.
Suvendu Samanta, special judge of India’s National Investigation Agency, delivered the verdict on Wednesday, the local media reported, according to bdnews24.com.
Mizan was sentenced to five years each on five counts and two years each for two other offences, which he will have to undergo consecutively.
After the JMB’s link was found in the blast at a house in Burdwan’s Khagragarh on Oct 2, 2014, the NIA said Mizan was involved with the incident. Two militant suspects were killed in the blast.
The law enforcers in Bangladesh had arrested Mizan in 2009 over a number of attacks, for which he was sentenced to up to life in prison.
The militants snatched him and two other JMB leaders away from police in a daring attack on a moving prison van at Trishal Upazila in Mymensingh on Feb 26, 2014.
Police announced Tk 500,000 reward for information leading to Mizan’s arrest.
The NIA arrested him again in Bengaluru in August 2018. He was wanted there for his involvement in the Bodh Gaya explosion in Bihar as well.
On Wednesday, the court also fined him Rs 29,000.
He is said to have received training in bomb-making from Nasrullah and Mollah Omar of JMB after being drafted into the group following his background in violent student politics.
Including Mizan, India has sentenced 29 of the 31 convicts in the Burdwan blast case while two others are on the run, according to the local media.
