The Special Task Force of Calcutta police arrested three men suspected to be operatives of the banned terror outfit Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which was allegedly responsible for the Khagragarh blast in East Burdwan in 2014.
Rabiul Islam, Naziur Rahman Pavel and Mekail Khan were arrested early on Sunday from a house in Haridevpur, where they had been staying for months.
All three are Bangladeshis, the police said.
“We have seized several incriminating documents from their possession, including a handwritten diary which has names and numbers of some top JMB leaders,” said an STF officer. “There are reasons to believe that these three men are actively involved in JMB activities.”
The police said they had been tracking social media accounts of the three based on specific intelligence inputs and realised that they were part of the JMB’s sleeper cell engaged in organising funds and recruiting people.
(From left) Naziur Rahman Pavel, Rabiul Islam and Mekail Khan Telegraph picture
The officers then started tracking their phone calls and identified their hideout based on their tower location. The accused will be produced in court on Monday.
The police have learnt that the three had taken the Haridevpur shelter on rent using false names and posing as traders dealing in fruits and mosquito nets. Naziur, for instance, had taken the name of Jayaram Byapari, the police said.
Naziur, who also went by the name of Joseph, had served three years in jail in Bangladesh. “We want to find out whether the three were in contact with other modules across the country and details of their funding pattern,” an officer said.
In September last year, the National Investigation Agency had arrested 10 people in Bengal and Kerala for their alleged terror links. These were followed by several more arrests in subsequent months.