Kolkata: Kolkata Police said Tuesday it has arrested four members of an Islamic State-affiliated terror outfit from two places in the city.
Acting on a tip-off, officers of the Special Task Force (STF) arrested the four operatives of the ‘Neo-Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh’ (JMB), an IS affiliate, police said. Among the four arrested three are from Bangladesh, while the other one hails from Nayagram village in Birbhum district of West Bengal. The four have been identified as Mohammed Zia ur-Rahaman, Mamun-ur Rashid, Mohammed Shahin Alam and Rabiul Islam. The last named is a resident of West Bengal.
While two were held from Sealdah area late Monday night, their interrogation led to the arrest of two others near the Howrah Railway Station, Tuesday morning, informed a police official.
“The three Bangladeshis were residing in India for quite some time in a bid to escape arrest in their country. They were here to recruit fresh blood under the IS banner,” the officer said. The Indian national was helping the three others in recruitment and collection of funds, police said.
“A mobile phone having photos, videos, jihadi literature was seized from them,” the senior officer said, adding initial probe has revealed that all the four were actively propagating their agenda on social media.
The arrest of the JMB members is significant as the IS has said that it will soon establish base in Bangladesh. Both the Indian and the Bangladeshi government are determined to prevent that at any cost. At the moment in Bangladesh, many sympathisers of various terrorist organisations have been rounded up. This is the main reason why the three JMB members had taken refuge here. They were planning to return to their native country soon, said another official.
Agencies