KOLKATA: A court in West Bengal on Tuesday ordered the production of four suspected members of the Bangladesh-based terror outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) by February 6. The suspects were arrested by Assam police in December, Bengal police officers said.
“The Berhampore court in Murshidabad district passed the order on Tuesday after hearing a petition from the special task force of the West Bengal police. These people need to be interrogated. Two of them lived in Bengal,” a police officer said, requesting anonymity.
The court order relates to Minarul Sheikh, 40, and Abbas Ali, 33, who were arrested by the Assam police from Murshidabad’s Hariharpara area, and are currently lodged in Guwahati jail. Two other suspects, Noor Islam Mondal, 40, and Shab Sheikh alias Sad Radi, 36, are also in the same jail.
Radi, a resident of Bangladesh’s Rajshahi district, illegally entered India in November 2024 and was allegedly taking orders from an associate of ABT chief Jasimuddin Rahmani who has links with al-Qaeda.
“It is suspected that Minarul Sheikh and Abbas Ali were working under instructions from Mondal and Radi to form sleeper cells in Bengal,” a state police official said.
{{/usCountry}}“It is suspected that Minarul Sheikh and Abbas Ali were working under instructions from Mondal and Radi to form sleeper cells in Bengal,” a state police official said.
{{/usCountry}}Security agencies have tightened vigil along the Bangladesh border following reports that 70 terrorists escaped from prisons in the neighbouring country during the mass movement in August 2024.
Around 1200 prisoners escaped from various jails in Bangladesh during the movement that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to leave her country. At least 70 of these prisoners, who could not be tracked down, are members of terrorist organizations. Inputs have indicated that many of them may try to enter India, an Intelligence Bureau (IB) official said on condition of anonymity.
At least 30 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and five members of Myanmar’s Rohingya community have been arrested in Bengal since December.