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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday assured the Centre of all cooperation to fight terrorism and promised to work together, as the country's security and intelligence chiefs including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval discussed with her the Burdwan blast case.
“We discussed the issue with the chief minister. The chief minister assured us to extend all cooperation and work together with the Centre to fight terrorism,” Prakash Mishra, Special Secretary, Union Home Ministry, told reporters after the meeting with Banerjee which lasted over an hour at the state secretariat.
Doval, Mishra, NSG DG J N Chowdhury and two senior intelligence officers from the Centre and state first met the chief minister. State Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra, Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee, state DGP GMP Reddy and city police commissioner Surajit Kar Purakayastha joined later.
Although the NSA did not interact with the media, Mishra said that the government had taken the Burdwan blast seriously and described it as an "issue of terror".
"The investigation to Burdwan blast will be taken to its logical end," he promised, adding that the Centre and the state were together on the issue of fighting terrorism.
"Very senior officers of both the Centre and the state are here. We have resolved to work together on this issue," he said.
Asked what prompted NSA Doval's visit to West Bengal, Mishra said, "He is a senior police officer. He is here to give a professional touch to the blast investigation."
To another question, he said, "We are also here for improving the capacity of the West Bengal Police and security agencies to handle this kind of situation."
Earlier in the day, the NSA visited the blast site in Burdwan and assessed the progress of the investigation.
NIA Director-General Sharad Kumar, NSG Director-General Jayanta Narayan Chowdhury and Intelligence Bureau Director Syed Asif Ibrahim accompanied him during the over 30-minute visit to the house at Khagragarh where the blast took place on October 2, the police said.
Doval and the three top officials visited the room where the bomb exploded killing two suspected terrorists. They also went to the room which had served as laboratory of the suspected terrorists and went up to the rooftop of the house.
Doval also enquired whether the two children of the suspected terrorists stayed in the house.
The children, who are toddlers, have been taken into custody along with their mothers, one of whom is the widow of one of the suspected terrorists who died in the blast.
He also met the district officials and asked about the progress of the inquiry into the blast, the police added.
Today's visit was the second in the past four days by the NIA DG.
Sharad Kumar after his first visit to Burdwan and Murshidabad on Friday had said that the arrested in connection with the blast and their associates were members of Jamaat-ul-
Mujahideen, Bangladesh and were making IEDs to be transported to the neighbouring country for possible terror attacks.
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Image: National Security Guard commandos visit investigate the Burdwan blast case at Badshahi Road. Photograph: PTI