A day after the Special Task Force of Assam and West Bengal arrested two persons from Murshidabad, the West Bengal police on Friday said that the two have links with banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and a “sleeper cell” was on a “recruitment drive” in West Bengal.
ADG (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar while speaking with mediapersons stated, “ABT was banned in 2013-2015 in Bangladesh, India, the UK, and the United States. They are known to have committed murders of bloggers between 2013-2015, robberies, and were setting up sleeper cells for terror activities in India. They were mainly recruiting from two places – Murshidabad and Alipurduar. They were planning terror activities in the Chicken’s Neck, Siliguri corridor. A person called Farhan was the head of the sleeper cell.”
The police investigations have revealed that ABT was attempting to “identify youngsters using communal fissures and all the economic disparities and thus would pick up youths who are useful for their ideologies.” To this end, the head of the ABT, along with his close associate Farhan, had sent a person named Saad Radi to India for recruitment purposes. Radi visited three states – West Bengal, Assam, and Kerala – during his recruitment drive, said police.
Gaurav Sharma, IG STF, West Bengal, said, “There was an input and a well-coordinated joint operation in which Assam police needed our support. ABT were trying to set up sleeper cells in the country. They were recruiting youths in the country.”
Radi was subsequently arrested in an operation involving 17-18 continuous raids conducted simultaneously in Assam and was apprehended in Kerala. Abbas Sheikh and Minarul Sheikh were arrested from Murshidabad’s Hariharpara. The police recovered four mobile phones, a pen drive, Islamic religious books and fake documents from the two suspects.
The Assam STF also arrested five persons from Assam and one from Kerala.
“Manirul, a 48-year-old pump mechanic, was attempting to establish a small madrasa for 10-12 students. Abbas, 29, has a prior criminal record, having been arrested in a POCSO and kidnapping case and released on bail after serving two years in jail,” said Sharma.
ADG Sarkar said that Abbas and Minarul, part of a eight-member group, arrested by the Bengal, Kerala and Assam police, were picked up by STF Assam in collaboration with West Bengal Police during a raid in Murshidabad. “We have recovered a 16GB pen drive, some literature, and fake identity cards from the two suspects, identified as Abbas and Minarul Sheikh. We suspect they were part of a sleeper module aiming to create instability in sensitive areas of south and north Bengal, as well as in the seven sister states of the Northeast. They were setting up bases in Murshidabad and Alipurduar districts, with plans to eliminate prominent Hindu leaders in the eastern and northeastern regions and carry out attacks similar to the 2015 hacking of a blogger in Bangladesh,” he said.
“A joint interrogation will be conducted, we are keen on to know their plans and actions in Bengal, on our side in the State as well as in our country. The way they had set up the cell, it’s clear that they were trying to cause disruption in the country by doing terror activities. Specific targets were the Chicken’s Neck, which is the Siliguri Corridor, so recruitment was one of the important parts of their activities, including the procurement of arms for the purpose. We are keen to unearth any more modules involved,” Sharma further said.
Sarkar also pointed out that Murshidabad had become a transit route for members of banned Bangladeshi outfits like Ansar-al-Islam. The two arrested persons, along with the others, were allegedly tasked with procuring weapons to carry out subversive activities in the region, police said.
— WITH PTI