Assam police’s Special Task Force (STF) with the help of West Bengal and Kerala police has arrested eight persons for their suspected link with a terror module during raids carried out in the three states on the intervening night of December 17 and 18.
On Thursday, Assam police said the arrests were made in connection with a case registered by the STF under multiple sections of the UAPA and the Passport Act 1967 under “Operation Praghat”.
The Operation Praghat, directly supervised by STF chief Partha Sarathi Mahanta, was launched after a detailed and prolonged examination of intelligence inputs “regarding the clandestine anti-national activities being carried out by group of individuals under the direction of one Md. Farhan Israk, a close associate of Jasimuddin Rahmani, the chief of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), an affiliate of the Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), a global terror outfit”.
Md. Sad Radi, originally from Rajshahi (in Bangladesh), was arrested from Kerala without any valid travel documents. Minarul Sheikh, and Md Abbas Ali, were arrested from Murshidibad, West Bengal. The five arrested from Assam are — Nur Islam Mandal, Abdul Karim Mandal, Mojibar Rahman, Hamidul Islam and Enamul Hoque.
It was found that the module was working to establish sleeper cells across the country, particularly in Assam and West Bengal, the police said.
These sleeper cells were intended to serve as covert operational units, poised for violent activities that would be initiated to disrupt peace and cause destruction of life.
“The arrested accused played a pivotal role in aiding Md. Sad Radi in his mission to identify, recruit and indoctrinate individuals who share or were inclined towards similar fundamentalist ideologies,” police said.
Radi visited Assam and West Bengal to meet sleeper-cell activists of the banned ABT before he moved to Kerala with a similar objective. He was “sent” to India in November 2024 “to spread their ideology and create sleeper-cells across India”.
The arrested accused have been in contact with Farhan Israk, a Bangladeshi national through Sad Radi. He was controlling the sleeper cell, set up by the arrested accused Nur Islam Mandal and Mozibar Rahman directly, police said.
