Bengal police on Friday said that alleged members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a banned terror outfit in Bangladesh, were keen to recruit Indian youths by exploiting economic disparities in society.
The police said that eight alleged terrorists had been arrested so far, five from Assam, two from Bengal and one from Kerala.
“It appears that Farhan Ishrat, a close aide of the person (Md Jasimuddin Rahmani) who heads the ABT, sent Saad Radi aka Shab Sheikh, 36, to Bengal to recruit members,” said a senior police officer of the special task force of the Bengal police.
“Saad also went to Assam and Kerala. Raids that led to Saad’s arrest from Kerala on December 18 also led to Bengal’s Minarul Sheikh and Md Abbas Ali,” he said.
Minarul and Abbas were arrested from Murshidabad’s Hariharpara on Thursday.
Minarul, 48, worked as a pump mechanic. Abbas, 29, had recently set up a small education centre for children.
“Abbas was arrested earlier in a Pocso case. He was in jail for two years and was out on bail,” said a senior police officer.
“Several documents, books and 16GB pendrives were recovered during the joint raid with Assam police in Murshidabad,” the officer added.
Senior officers said they had reasons to believe that the module operating out of Murshidabad had its eye on the Siliguri corridor to reach out to the Northeast.
“We are also trying to find out how Minarul came in contact with Abbas and what transpired between the two towards allegedly setting up ABT sleeper cells,” an
officer said.
