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Bengal STF arrests college student over links with Jaish operative Hamim Mondal
Preliminary investigations suggested that Singh had shared information about Rai’s movements and pictures of Rai and his son
West Bengal police’s Special Task Force (STF) on Monday arrested a college student for his alleged links to Jaish-e-Mohammed operative Hamim Mondal.
“Aditya Singh was arrested from Howrah district. Singh lived in an apartment with his family on Howrah’s Belilious Road,” said a police officer.
The STF arrested Mondal from East Burdwan district on Friday and Arpita Sharma from Sahibganj in Jharkhand on Saturday for their alleged links to a Pakistan-based terror module run by Shahzad Bhatti.
Police said Mondal was setting up a network in West Bengal and planned to target chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.
“Mondal was tasked with studying the movement pattern of West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari and identifying unguarded moments. Some police personnel and politicians were also being targeted. A minister from Howrah district was being targeted and Mondal was trying to honeytrap the minister’s son using Sarkar and abduct him,” said an officer.
Also Read:Jaish operative held in Bengal planned to target CM Suvendu, infiltrate Jantar Mantar protest: STF
People familiar with the matter said the targeted minister from Howrah was Umesh Rai, a legislator from Howrah North and a minister of state in the West Bengal government.
“I don’t know anything. He was a student of Umesh Chandra College in Kolkata. I don’t know why he was arrested,” Singh’s mother said.
Preliminary investigations suggested that Singh had shared information about Rai’s movements and pictures of Rai and his son, their residence and their vehicle with Mondal.
“These are actual enemies of our society. They help Pakistani terrorists in lieu of money,” Rai said.
Mondal also had instructions from the Bhatti gang to carry out subversive activities at Jantar Mantar where students protested over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) paper leak and other alleged exam irregularities. The Bhatti gang works closely with the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and other terrorist organisations.
