Amid concerns over increasing activities of Bangladeshi terror groups in India, Federal Minister G Kishan Reddy told Parliament on Wednesday that nearly 120 terrorists from Bangladesh had been arrested in India in the last five years.
Almost half that number came from the north-eastern state Assam, which shares a border with Bangladesh.
"As per available information, security forces arrested a total of 120 terrorists belonging to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in the country during the past five years," Reddy said, replying to a written question in the Upper House of the Parliament.
India's Ministry of Home Affairs declared JBM a banned terrorist outfit, responding to intelligence inputs that the unit plans to set up permanent bases along the border.
In October, Indian intelligence agency NIA said that JBM was trying to increase presence in the country and that an anti-probe terror agency had shared a list of 125 suspects.
Reddy pointed out that the issues related to terrorism were being raised with Bangladesh bilaterally, under security cooperation between the countries. "Sharing intelligence inputs between agencies concerned is an on-going process," he said.
According to Intelligence inputs, the terror outfit, which operates from Bangladesh, is establishing a base close to India's eastern border in West Bengal, Assam, and Tripura.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in India has been raising concerns over the rising number of infiltrators, citing it as a security concern. The NIA claims that JBM was involved in two major bomb blasts in 2014 and 2018.
This is being cited as a reason behind the government's National Register of Citizens of India – a supreme court of India-monitored exercise to identify genuine citizens of the country and extradite infiltrators from Assam.
