3 Bangladeshis arrested in Kolkata on terror charge

Kolkata police yesterday arrested four people, including three Bangladeshis, from Sealdah Railway Station area for their alleged involvement in militant activities.

The Bangladeshis are Ziaur Rahman alias Mohsin alias Jahir Abbas from Chapainawabganj, Mamunur Rahasid from Rangpur and Shahin Alam from Rajshahi.

The other arrestee is Rabiul Islam from Mitrapur area of Burdwan in West Bengal.

Subhankar Sinha Sarkar, joint commissioner of Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata police, said the three Bangladeshis, alleged members of Jamaa’tul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), had trespassed on the Indian territory to avoid arrest at home.

The four were produced before a Kolkata court in a terror case.

The STF picked up two suspects from near Sealdah Railway Station. Gleaning information from them, the law enforcers later arrested the two others.

Their mobile phones, seized during an operation, contained photos, videos, books and literature on extremism. The arrestees used to use those to train other operatives, STF officials said.

Among the Bangladeshis, Shahin, son of Rafiqul Islam, had been out of contact with his family in Rajshahi’s Godagari upazila since June last year.

He had good connections with suspected militant Ajimul Islam, who was killed in a “shootout” with police on March 1, 2017, days after he allegedly stabbed two cops during a raid, said police.

In Rangpur, locals and police could not immediately say anything about Mamunur as his family moved to Gangachara upazila from Mominpur village around 25 years ago.

“We heard that they lived in Baraibari village in Gangachara upazila. We are trying to collect information about him,” Sajedur Rahman, OC of Rangpur Sadar Police Station, told The Daily Star.

Our correspondents in Kolkata, Rajshahi and Dinajpur contributed to this report.