The Special Task Force (STF) of Bengal police on Sunday arrested a college student from his residence in West Burdwan for his alleged links with Bangladesh-based terror outfits.

SIT sources said Mohammad Habibulla, 20, a second-year computer science student at Mankar college, had links with two banned Islamist organisations — Ansar al-Islam and Shahadat-e al Hiqma — of Bangladesh. He has been booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, under which the highest punishment is death or life imprisonment.

Charges of waging war against the Indian government were also slapped on Habibulla.

He was produced in the additional chief judicial magistrate court in Durgapur on Sunday. The court remanded him in police custody for a fortnight.

The SIT has also seized his laptop and mobile phone, some documents allegedly linked to the terrorist outfits and a diary. SIT officers said Habibulla used to communicate with the top leaders of the banned outfits in the neighbouring country in end-to-end encrypted WhatsApp messages and calls.

Habibulla was questioned by the investigators at Kanksa police station till Saturday midnight. Based on information provided by him, the SIT got the names of five more persons from the Nababhat area, on the outskirts of Burdwan town, who were also in touch with Habibulla. Their names and details were not revealed by the SIT.

An SIT officer said the five youths were about to join the module with the help of Habibulla and the things were in progress.

"We have found some documents of the outfits and several names of youths from Habibulla's diary who were in the process of being recruited," the officer added.

Habibulla's father Ismail was visibly shocked and shattered after the incident. "My son was a good student and I was struggling against every odd to give him higher education. I don't know what and why such things happened. I am shocked," he told media persons outside the court.