Kolkata: A charge sheet filed by police reveals that a man was drawing up plans to attack Missionaries of Charity headquarters in Kolkata.
The site was for a long time the home of Mother Teresa, and many foreigners congregate there, especially after she was canonised on September 4.
Mohammad Mousa, a suspected Daesh operative who had been tasked with killing foreigners visiting the West Bengal capital, is now undergoing trial at a court.
Officers of the National Investigation agency (NIA) said Mousa had close contact with Bangladesh-based Jamat Ul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB, which is said to be responsible for the attack on Dhaka’s Holey Artisan cafe that killed 20 people, including an Indian student, in July this year.
A resident of West Bengal’s Birbhum district, Mousa was arrested in July at the Burdwan railway station. He had been also been interrogated recently by the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding his links with Daesh.
“He was radicalised in a manner that can be called xenophobic, where he developed a hatred for Westerners and their way of life. He detested any Western values and considered it as a saintly act to kill Westerners. He was radicalised through social media,” said an officer of the NIA.
Sources in the investigating agency say Mousa had created terror modules in West Bengal and Bangladesh and had been trying to indoctrinate young minds with his xenophobic ideas and the police are working to bust them.
Meanwhile security has been beefed up at Mother Teresa’s house in the city where the saint had been buried.
“The threat perception is much less now post his arrest but in this world of terror it is based to be always on alert,” the officer added.
