Al-Qaeda tentacles in Assam

Highly placed home department officials said al-Qaeda is trying to set up base in Assam. Militants of several outfits in the Barpeta and Kokrajhar districts of Assam have undergone training at al-Qaeda camps, they added.

The state government has already sounded high alert. District administrations have been instructed to remain vigilant, particularly in the border areas. A high-level committee headed by an Inspector General of Police-rank officer has been set up to study the presence and threat of militant groups in Assam.

Meanwhile, three persons have been detained by the police in Mankachar in the Dhubri district of Assam on Saturday in connection with the Burdwan blast case. This brings the number of arrests in the case to nine.

The six persons arrested earlier have been identified as Rafikul Islam, Siraj Ali, Saikhul Islam, Johoruddin, Golam Osmani and Sarbes Ali. They were arrested on Thursday after their names were unearthed during the investigation of other people held in connection with the October 2 blast.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate court here sent the six people to 14 days of police remand. The two people who died in the blast are suspected to belong to the Bangladesh-based outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen. The outfit shares close links with al-Qaeda.

Ultras posing as couple worries Bengal CID

Validating its theory that terror operatives are posing as couples, the West Bengal CID has discovered yet another safe house in Burdwan district where two suspected couples were living on rent. Both couples, however, vanished soon after the blast, DHNS reports from Kolkata.

The house’s owner, Sheikh Manimul, filed a complaint with the police on suspicion after the couples' disappearance. He told the police that around three months ago a man named Sheikh Taleb had rented the ground floor of his two-storeyed house and moved in with his wife.