A city court on Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment five operatives of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for waging war against the state and plotting a terror attack in the Northeast.

Four of those convicted were earlier found guilty in the 2014 Khagragarh blast case, where an explosion occurred in a house in the Khagragarh locality of Burdwan.

The sixth person was released for want of sufficient evidence.

The special task force (STF) arrested Anwar Hossain Faruque, 38, Sheikh Maulana Yusuf, 31, Mohammad Sahidul Islam, 22, Jabirul Islam, 30, Mohammad Rubel, 26, and Abdul Kalam alias Azad, 27, in 2016, sources said.

Among the six, Abdul Kalam was absolved of his charges. Faruque and Rubel were found to be Bangladeshi nationals.

The five sentenced to life were convicted by the city sessions court in Bichar Bhawan on Tuesday. The court pronounced the quantum of punishment on Wednesday.

They were arrested based on the input that some JMB operatives had entered India through the porous border in North 24-Parganas and were planning subversive activities in the Northeastern states.

“The six accused were arrested from parts of North 24-Parganas, Cooch Behar and Assam with explosives and IED chips. Two of them were Bangladeshi nationals,” a senior Kolkata Police officer said.

“Some documents seized from their possession revealed how they were planning explosions,” an STF officer said.

“Organisational charts, money, laptops, SD cards and other documents were also seized,” the officer said.

During the probe, the accused said the Indian government was main target because the JMB believed that India was a hurdle in their way, said senior police officers.

“During the interrogation, the accused said that the JMB wanted to establish a greater Bangladesh and take revenge against the alleged atrocities on Rohingyas and Kashmiris,” a police officer said.

“Some of them had procured fake Indian documents,” he added.

The police said four of the five were also convicted for the Khagragah blast.