Representative image of a prison
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Guwahati: Police in Assam on Thursday said eight Islamic fundamentalists including a Bangladeshi national, who targetted RSS members and Hindu leaders in India, were arrested from Kerala, West Bengal and Assam.
Special director general of police, Harmeet Singh told reporters in Guwahati that Mohammad Sad Radi, a resident of Bangladesh's Rajshahi, came to India in November in order to spread tentacles of fundamentalist idelogy by creating sleeper cells and to initiate violence. Radi alias Shab Seikh, 37, had visited Assam and West Bengal and sleeper cell members of the Bangladesh-based banned terror group Ansarul Bangla Team (ABT), an affilate of Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). "He later moved to Kerala and was arrested with the help of police in Kerala," Singh said.
Singh said intelligence inputs suggested that the network was carrying out anti-national activities under the direction of Mohammad Farhan Israk, a close associate of Jasimuddin Rahmani, the chief of ABT.
Two accused, Minarul Sheikh and Abbas Ali, both residents of West Bengal's Murshidabad district, were arrested from Bengal on Wednesday. Five others, Nur Islam Mandal, Abdul Karim Mandal, Mojibar Rahman, Hamidul Islam and Enamul Hoque were arrested from western Assam's Dhubri district, Dhubri shares a border with Bangladesh.
"The incriminating documents and mobile phones wth technical evidence seized from them indicate their continuos communication acros the border with Bangladesh and Pakistan-based entities over the last couple of months," Singh said. He said the eight were arrested during an operation named "Operation Praghat" carried out by a Special Task Force of Assam police.
"Several meetings were organised in Murshidabad and Falakata in West Bengal, where participants, including Nur Islam Mandal and his associates, deliberated extensively on targetting members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other Hindu organisations. During these meetings, they devised plans to assassinate prominent religious and Hindu leaders," he said.
Singh claimed that the individuals were actively involved in procurement of weapons as part of a larger conspiracy to wage agains the government of India.
Police in Assam had arrested several persons on charges of links with ABT in the past.