Six alleged terrorists linked to the Bangladesh-based terror organisation Ansarul Islam Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub continent’ (AQIS) were apprehended in Assam’s Barpeta district on Saturday and prosecuted under the severe anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), according to police.
The Ansarul Islam has links with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub continent’ (AQIS).
Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS)
Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) is al-newest Qaeda’s affiliate and a US-designated terrorist organisation. The group, which was founded in September 2014, has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist operations in the region, including the attempted takeover of a Pakistan navy frigate in a naval dockyard in Karachi, Pakistan, on September 6, 2014.
In Bangladesh, the group has claimed responsibility for the assassinations of secular activists, writers, teachers, and doctors. According to reports, AQIS is active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, Barpeta Superintendent of Police Amitava Sinha said, 6 individuals with ties to the ‘Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) were apprehended at a madrassa in Howly on Friday.
Moreover, the arrests were made as a consequence of clues gathered from an investigation into five people, including a Bangladeshi national, who was arrested in Barpeta last month for alleged ties to the same organisation.
“We arrested the six persons on the basis of information provided by a jihadi who was arrested on March 4,” Mr Sinha said at a press conference.
Those arrested are between the ages of 28 and 45 and have been placed on 10-day police hold.
“We have recovered 15 mobile phones, 20 SIM cards and other literature from those arrested. We can’t comment on what is incriminating in it, it is being examined, but they have links to the previously arrested people,” Mr Sinha stated.
According to a top police official, all of those arrested are inhabitants of the Barpeta district and were active in attempting to “radicalise youths” in Barpeta.
The National Investigation Agency, or NIA, is already in charge of the prior arrests’ inquiry.
On March 4, five people, including a Bangladeshi national, were arrested for their alleged links with a suspected terror group of Ansarul Islam, based in Bangladesh with affiliation to the AQIS, in the Barpeta district.
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