Terrorists arrested in Kolkata may have Al-Qaeda links: Police

The three neo-Jamaat-ul- Mujahideen Bangladesh JMB terrorists, arrested in Kolkata, were setting up terror modules in West Bengal and may have links with Al-Qaeda and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami HuJI, police said.It is suspected that they have associates in some districts of the state, a senior officer of the Special Task Force STF of the Kolkata Police said on Tuesday.Initial interrogation revealed that the JMB operatives were trying to build modules in West Bengal.

The three neo-Jamaat-ul- Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terrorists, arrested in Kolkata, were setting up terror modules in West Bengal and may have links with Al-Qaeda and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI), police said.

It is suspected that they have associates in some districts of the state, a senior officer of the Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police said on Tuesday.

''Initial interrogation revealed that the JMB operatives were trying to build modules in West Bengal. These terrorists may have links with terror groups Al-Qaeda and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI). The documents seized from them indicate this,'' the officer said.

The STF arrested JMB operatives Najiur Rahman, Rabiul Islam and Sabir from Haridevpur area in south Kolkata on Sunday. They are Bangladeshi nationals who had used forged documents to get a room on rent.

Their linkman, identified as Salim Munshi, had used the identity card of an unsuspecting elderly man to prepare a fake identity card for Najiur, the officer said.

Najiur became Jayram Byapari in the fake identity card and the elderly man his father.

''Munshi had borrowed the identity card from an old man on the pretext that his brother was coming from Bangladesh and required a document to get a licence to drive an auto- rickshaw,'' the officer said.

The three terrorists had come from Bangladesh to Kolkata a few months ago and living in the middle-class neighbourhood.

Several documents, including jihadi materials, lists of top JMB leaders and their associates in other terror groups, were seized from their possession.

A number of JMB operatives, including Indians, were arrested in West Bengal in the past few years.

The JMB, which carried out a terror attack at a popular cafe in Dhaka in 2016 in which 22 people, including 17 foreigners, were killed, is trying to spread its tentacles in India, the NIA had said in 2019.

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