An operation has been launched in Nalanda in search of suspected operatives of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahiden Bangladesh, which allegedly triggered blasts in Bengal's Burdwan district about two months ago.

The Nalanda police received an alert from the Special Branch on Friday on the possibility of some Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh operatives hiding in the district. The district police received the tip-off after the National Investigating Agency (NIA) - probing the Bengal blasts case - alerted the state police headquarters.

Photographs and names of a few suspects in the Bengal blasts case have been forwarded to the Nalanda police.

Nalanda superintendent of police (SP) Siddharth Mohan Jain confirmed that an intelligence input had been provided to the district police but refused to share more information. 'All the police stations in the district have been put on alert,' he told The Telegraph on Sunday.

NIA claimed to have made significant breakthrough in the Bengal blasts case after the arrest of Amajad Sheikh alias Kajal, suspected to be a member of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, the terror outfit banned in Bangladesh.

A senior police officer said though a general alert had been sounded across the state, the Nalanda police had been asked to maintain the maximum surveillance. 'The accused in the Bengal blasts case are said to have taken shelter at a place considered to be safe for the terror outfits,' the officer said.

Nalanda had earlier been used as a safe hideout by underworld don-turned terrorist Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Mallik, the alleged mastermind behind the attack on Amercian Center in Calcutta. Ansari, who claimed to be a resident of Chhabilapur in Nalanda district, had got his passport issued from Patna regional passport office in 2000. The case is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Till date, no concrete information has been ascertained about the Bengal blast suspects, the senior officer said, adding that the Nalanda police had been asked to inform the police headquarters immediately if any suspect was detained for interrogation.

Bihar witnessed two serial blasts last year - the first at Bodhgaya and the second at Patna's Gandhi Maidan. The blasts were allegedly triggered by the members of the Students' Islamic Movement of India and the Indian Mujahideen.