This comes after NIA arrested 13 suspected terror operatives in the country, including four in Bengal, on Tuesday. Kolkata: An encrypted Telegram channel – ‘Purber Akash’ – was being used by terror leadership to build an extensive underground network spanning Bengal, Assam and Kerala , NIA investigators have found.
Following multi-state raids on Tuesday, NIA arrested four key operatives from Bengal for their alleged roles in the cross-border terror conspiracy and 13 overall from all over the country. The arrested individuals have been identified as Sheikh Jumman Hossain and Saharul Haque Purkait from Budge Budge in South 24 Parganas, Piyar Mohammad Sheikh from Mangalkot in East Bardhaman and Abdur Rafiq from Canning.
JMB senior Imam Mahmud Habibullah established spinoff extremist group Imam Mahmud’s Khilafa (IMK) – of which the arrested operatives were members – to promote JMB’s radical agenda, radicalise vulnerable youth and establish operational bases across Indian soil using the encrypted channel, NIA sources said. They were produced before a special NIA court in Kolkata and have been remanded to five days of NIA custody before their transit to Guwahati for further interrogation. NIA invoked charges related to criminal conspiracy, waging war against the nation and endangering national sovereignty, and charges under UAPA provisions against the four arrested on Tuesday.