Mother of Bengal woman held in B’desh for terror links wants action
<br>Progya alias Ayesha Jannat Mohona alias Tasnim, hails from West Bengal’s Hooghly, and had purportedly converted to Islam.
Progya was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Bangladesh police and has been charged with recruiting people for terror activities and raising funds, among other charges.
“I want her to be punished as per law,” her mother Geeta Debnath (50), told media at her home in Dhaniakhali, a small town in Hoogly district of West Bengal, as she struggled to hold back her tears.
Daughter of a daily wage-earner, Progya, before converting, went missing in September 2016.
Intelligence sleuths came to know that she had converted to Islam in 2009 while studying in school. “It appears someone took her into confidence. She came in touch with Asmani Khatun, the chief of JMB’s women’s youth wing in 2016, and was recruited in the banned militant outfit.
Since then Progya alias Ayesha started visiting Bangladesh frequently to meet with militant leaders. She was there in the garb of a guest teacher at religious institutes, as was the plan of the JMB.
Her arrest came to light 3 months after India’s National Investigation Agency tracked down college student Tania Parveen, a suspected Lashkar-e-Tayeba member, and an agent of ISIS, in North 24 Parganas last March.
Neo-Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has moles planted in West Bengal and other parts of India, said sources of the intelligence team.
An official said, “We consider Ayesha a serious threat. Ayesha, who belonged to Hogghly’s remote Dhaniakhali area, went to Bangladesh and was carrying out activities against the government of the neighbouring country. We do not know how many youths she recruited in India.”
Asmani Khatun, 28, was arrested on February 4 from Dhaka’s north Kamalapur area by a CTTC team.
And since then Pragya alias Ayesha was assigned to recruit youths for the banned militant outfit, said detective officials in Dhaka.
The presence of JMB operatives in West Bengal came to light after a blast in Burdwan in 2014 in which two persons were killed. “We came to know about the outfit’s presence in districts such as Murshidabad, Nadia, Birbhum, and Malda. But Hooghly was never under our scanner because we did not find any footprint in the district while probing the Burdwan blast,” said another SIB officer.
The central agency informed India’s Ministry of External Affairs about Ayesha’s arrest. “We need to communicate with Bangladesh Police to know the extent of Ayesha’s activities in West Bengal and India,” the officer explained.
Progya’s mother claimed she had no idea about what was going on with Ayesha.
“My daughter was absolutely normal. I clearly remember the day my daughter left home, never to return again. One morning ahead of Durga Puja in 2016, Pragya left home saying she was going out on errands,” she said.
Geeta added, “It was September 25, 2016. A few hours later when we called her, the mobile was switched off. We searched frantically but Progya was nowhere. Finally, we went to the police and lodged a complaint.”
Two days later, Geeta received a call from her daughter. “Pragya called me around noon and told me she is in Bangladesh and has embraced Islam,” the mother said.
“She sought my blessings and said this was the last time she would speak to us. The number from which she called has been unreachable ever since,” according to Geeta.
Progya’s neighbours in Dhaniakhali said she did not have many friends and was reticent.
“She was a simple college-going girl who would always smile when she met people on the road,” Sushil Bera, a neighbour said.
Geeta said her daughter would cycle a kilometre to college every morning and return by afternoon and there was nothing unusual in her behaviour.
The poor mother came to know about the arrest of her daughter from the media.
–IANS<br>sumi/kr
