Guwahati, Dec 30 The Special Task Force (STF) of Assam Police has arrested another member of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a Bangladesh-based terror group affiliated with Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), officials said on Monday.
A spokesman of the Assam Police said that as part of 'Operation Praghat', launched by the STF, the absconding prime accused, Gazi Rahman (35) was arrested with the assistance of Kokrajhar Police.
“Necessary legal action is being initiated in this matter. The STF continued its efforts to apprehend all individuals connected to this case,” the spokesman said.
With the latest arrest, the STF so far apprehended 12 associates of the ABT.
On December 27, ABT cadre Shahinur Islam (36) was arrested from Bandhabpara in Dhubri District while on December 24 the STF arrested Abdul Zaher Sheikh and Sabbir Mirdha from Namapara in Kokrajhar district and a huge cache of arms and ammunition and other war-like items were recovered from the hideout of one of the arrested accused persons.
The STF as part of Operation Praghat on the intervening night of December 17-18 had apprehended eight ABT operatives across Assam, West Bengal and Kerala. Among the eight, five were arrested in Assam's Kokrajhar and Dhubri districts, two in West Bengal, and one Bangladeshi national in Kerala.
Of the eight arrests, Bangladeshi national Muhammad Sad Radi a.k.a. Md Shab Seikh (32), a resident of Rajshahi in Bangladesh, was apprehended from Kerala.
After the interrogation of the eight detainees, the remaining four accused persons were arrested from Dhubri and Kokrajhar, bordering Bhutan and West Bengal.
“With these 12 arrests, the STF achieved a huge success in averting a possible major terror act by fundamentalist/Jihadi elements of a Global Terrorist Organisation (GTO)," the spokesman said.
Assam Police Special Director General Harmeet Singh earlier said the eight persons (arrested on the intervening night of December 17-18) were handlers in Pakistan and Bangladesh. They were working to form 'sleeper cells' in different parts of India and there were plans to assassinate leaders belonging to the Hindu community and RSS, besides undertaking violent and subversive activities in India, Singh had said.
The Special DGP had said that Operation Praghat was launched in November after a detailed and prolonged examination of intelligence input regarding the clandestine anti-national activities being carried out by a group of individuals under the direction of Md Farhan Israk, a close associate of Jasimuddin Rahmani.
Rahmani, according to the police officer, is the ABT Chief.
The operation was launched under the direct supervision of STF Chief Partha Sarathi Mahanta.
Earlier this month, the Assam Police STF also arrested five Pakistan-linked terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) members from Kokrajhar and Dhubri.
Four JeM operatives have been arrested from Kokrajhar district, while one JeM linkman was arrested from Dhubri district, a police officer said.
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