Security agencies of Bangladesh and India have separately launched a massive man-hunt to identify and locate the whereabouts of fugitive terror suspects and other foot-soldiers who were planning series of bomb attacks in several Indian and Bangladesh locations, highly placed sources confirmed on Sunday.
For the first time separately, but simultaneously the top state security agencies of two neighbours are working on the primary leads of the recent Burdwan blast, which the West Bengal police blamed on the banned Jamaatul Mujahideen - Bangladesh (JMB).
Home Ministry officials argued that the man-hunt for the fugitive suspects was not a joint operation of two countries instead Bangladesh offered to facilitate the probe, if Delhi requests Dhaka.
Several hours later on October 2, Delhi alerted Dhaka on the blast incident and Bangladesh Foreign Ministry asked for updates of the occurrence.
Indian security agencies told Bangladesh authorities that strikes were planned as retaliation against the Sheikh Hasina government's crackdown on JMB terror-outfit.
Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) discovered signs emerged that the network had footprints in Kolkata, are pointing to a bigger plot extending not just to Assam, but also to Jammu & Kashmir and the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, based on leads gathered from the three women arrested from the site of the October 2 blast, writes influential newspaper the Times of India (ToI).
Indian investigators believe that the JMB module procured explosive materials and chemicals from the trading hub in central Kolkata and components for improvised explosive devices (IED), particularly the casing or outer shells.
The discovery of grenades and bomb-making equipment from Burdwan, as well as linkages across several states borne out by calls exchanged by suspects in Burdwan with aides in far-off locations like J&K and even southern states, indicate elaborate planning and high- level of preparations by JMB to carry out attacks in Bangladesh.
NIA sleuths fear the four suspects arrested so far and aides contacted across states by the militants are possibly foot soldiers. The probe will now focus on identifying the leaders of the terror network.
Meanwhile, Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MIA) has confirmed that the South Block (office of MIA) has received official note verbal from Bangladesh, requesting for development of the probe.
MIA's official spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin on Friday confirmed: "Bangladesh government has requested our assistance in this matter. We have received that communication from Bangladesh and have requested our concerned agencies to tabulate information and collate so that we can share appropriately with our friends in Bangladesh."
The cooperation from Delhi was possible after NIA joined the high-profile blast probe, which angered West Bengal's chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
A day after NIA took over the probe into the Burdwan blast, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata in a rare reaction posted in Facebook, lashed out at Delhi for its "increasing trend of meddling in state matters since the new government  came to power" in Delhi. However, she avoided mentioning the Burdwan blast in her status in the social media.