West Bengal Police claim a Bangladeshi terror group’s sleeper cell attempted to strike the Siliguri corridor.
West Bengal Police on Friday (December 20, 2024) said that suspected members of the “global terror group” Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) who were arrested for allegedly running a sleeper cell in India had specifically targeted the Siliguri corridor that connects north Bengal to the seven northeastern States, according to their inputs.
The eight accused were allegedly running a sleeper cell across Kerala, Assam, and West Bengal. According to West Bengal Police, ABT is a splinter group of Bangladesh-based terrorist organisation Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and is banned in India, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom and the United States.
All eight arrested individuals, including the two apprehended in West Bengal, were produced in court and remanded to 10 days of police custody, according to sources in the Special Task Force (STF) of Assam Police. Assam STF is currently analysing four pen drives and other incriminating evidence.
Two of the accused were arrested by West Bengal and Assam STF from Murshidabad district on Wednesday. “We received information that the Ansarul Bangla team was trying to set up sleeper cells in the country to recruit youth and procure arms,” Gaurav Sharma, Inspector General (IG) of the West Bengal STF, said. “They were trying to identify youngsters using communal fissures and economic disparities and from there they were trying to pick up the youth who were useful for their ideology.”
He went on to say that Farhan Ishrat, a close associate of the ABT chief, had sent one Saad Radi from Bangladesh to India to conduct recruitment activities. Accordingly, Radi had visited Kerala, West Bengal and Assam as part of the process, he added.
He also said that Radi was arrested in a coordinated operation on the night of December 17-18, when continuous raids were conducted simultaneously across all three States.
“The objective of the sleeper cell was to recruit the local youth to engage in terrorist activities. They aimed to make the ‘chicken’s neck’ — the corridor connecting Siliguri to the seven Northeastern states — an active site of their activities,” Supratim Sarkar, Additional Director General of Police (ADG), South Bengal said.
According to the police, the two arrested on Thursday from Hariharpara in West Bengal’s Murshidabad are Minarul Sheikh (48), a pump mechanic, and Md Abbas Ali (29), who was trying to set up a small education centre for children. Both are residents of the area.
“Mr. Ali has a criminal history. He was arrested earlier also, in a POCSO, kidnapping and rape case. He had already been imprisoned for two years and was out on bail,” Mr. Sarkar said.
He added that multiple documents, mobile phones and a 16GB pen drive were seized. “All the seized items have been taken by the Assam police. We are going to conduct joint interrogations,” he said. “We are more keenly interested in their action plan and if they had intended to conduct their activities in West Bengal.”
This development comes amidst rising tensions in West Bengal and Bangladesh following reports of atrocities on religious minorities and the recent arrest of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das. Last month, a former Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader was arrested from Kolkata.
