GUWAHATI:
The Assam Police, on the night of August 1, caught a suspected jihadi from Khudrakuchi near Kalgachia.
Identified as Safikuddin Ahmed, a resident of Garemari in Barpeta district, he is the eleventh person to be arrested within the last five days in the district over suspicion of having links with jihadi outfits.
The suspect, who was picked from his relative’s house where he was in hiding, is being interrogated by a team of police officers, and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which also arrived on Tuesday.
With this arrest, the total number of suspected Jihadis to be nabbed by the police has gone up to 11.
Earlier on July 28, 11 persons were detained for their alleged links with global terror outfits such as Al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) and Bangladesh-based Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) from Assam’s Morigaon, Barpeta, Guwahati, and Goalpara districts. Of the 11, eight suspected jihadis were sent to nine-day police custody by the Barpeta court on July 29.
On July 7, two men were arrested on suspicion of being jihadis during a police operation in Assam’s Kaljhar, north of Barpeta, Howli.
Identified as Mokaddas Ali Ahmed of North Kaljhar, and Shafiqul Islam of Jania, they were arrested by the Barpeta Police in 2019 on charges of embezzlement by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB), a terrorist outfit operating in Bangladesh.
The police had seized three handmade bombs, three electronic detonators, and five mobile phones from their possession, among other incriminating items.