The Special Task Force (STF) of the West Bengal police has arrested a second-year Computer Science student from Panagarh in the State’s Purba Bardhaman district, for his alleged links to a Bangladesh-based terror outfit. The accused was produced before a district court on Sunday and remanded to 14 days of police custody.
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“Today, STF West Bengal has arrested the Ameer of the said module, named as, Md Habibullah of Kanksa, Dist.: Paschim Bardhaman from his residence. It has been learnt that the members of the group mostly communicate through a cryptic messaging platform,” an STF official had said after the arrest on Saturday.
According to the police, the accused has links to a new terror module named ‘Shahadat’, which is also operating in Bangladesh. “This terror module is found to be linked with activists of Ansar Al Islam, which is a banned terror organisation in Bangladesh and is affiliated to Al Qaida, which is a global terrorist organisation,” the STF said.
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UAPA charges
Charges have also been brought against the accused under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, among others, and five others have also been questioned in connection with the case. The STF has seized the laptop and mobile phone of the accused, alonng with a few documents.
Sources say that since the Bangladeshi government has taken strict action against Ansar Al Islam, such outfits have been mushrooming in West Bengal. In 2016, NIA had arrested a student from the Kanksa area in the district for his alleged links to ISI.
When the NIA investigated the blast at Khagragarh in Bardhaman district in October 2014, its chargesheet described the incident as part of a “conspiracy of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Bangladesh, to overthrow the existing democratic government in Bangladesh through violent terrorist acts”.