'Terror trio' arrested in Calcutta

Murlidhar Sharma at a news conference in Calcutta. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

TT, Calcutta:
Police have arrested two Bangladeshi nationals, believed to have links with a terror outfit in the neighbouring country, and an Indian associate from outside Chitpore railway station in Calcutta where they had allegedly met to finalise an arms deal.

The arrested trio were identified as Rizaul Islam alias Sumon, 25, of Kasimnagar in Khulna; Samsad Mia alias Tanvir alias Tushar Biswas, 26, from Sylhet; and Monotosh Dey alias Mona da, 46, of Basirhat in Bengal's North 24-Parganas district.

"The Bangladeshi nationals told us they were members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a banned outfit in their country.... They claimed they were here to procure arms," said deputy commissioner, special task force, Murlidhar Sharma.

Intelligence sources in Dhaka said the ABT, which had recently claimed responsibility for the killings of secular bloggers, free thinkers and foreign nationals in Bangladesh, had changed its name to Anar-ul- Islam. The outfit upholds the ideology of al Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which has earlier been linked to multiple terror activities in India, the sources said.

"ABT had been inactive since April last year as we carried out major crack downs in our country.... I still don't know about the arrests in Calcutta. But we will be very keen to interrogate them," Monirul Islam, who is heading the counter-terrorism unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Telegraph.

The Sheikh Hasina government had upped the ante on terror outfits after the July 1 terror attack on an upscale café in Dhaka, in which at least 20 people were killed.

The police in Calcutta have found visiting cards of chemical factories from the Bangla duo. Bundles of al-Qaida literature, books on "recce" and explosives-making and two detailed maps of the Eden Gardens and the Esplanade bus stop area and sketches of other installations were found on them, the police said.

"They said they had entered India around one-and-a-half years ago without any legal documents," said Sharma.

STF sources said they had seized a laptop and several pen drives from the Bangladeshi nationals.

"From the things that we found on them, it is clear that they have received explosives training from a militant named Majidbhai in Pakistan," said an STF officer.

Sources said their movement was first traced by the central agencies in Patna in September when they were trying to procure chemicals. The agencies found out that they were about to enter Bengal during Durga Puja, before the Salt Lake stadium was to host the U-17 Football World Cup.