E-Paper
Kin of alleged al Qaeda operatives arrested from Bengal still puzzled about offence
Kamal was picked up from his house at Jalangi in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district by the National Investigative Agency (NIA). He was one of the six men accused of being radicalised by a Pakistan-based al Qaeda module to carry out terror attacks in India.
When Asura Khatun woke up and saw policemen entering her house to arrest her husband in the early hours of Saturday, it was a bolt from the blue for her.
“I asked them what my husband Al Mamun Kamal had done. They didn’t reply and instead told me to ask my husband what he had done. I asked my husband. Even he didn’t reply. He just told me not to worry and that if he was innocent, he would return soon. Else he would be punished,” Bibi said.
Kamal was picked up from his house at Jalangi in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district by the National Investigative Agency (NIA). He was one of the six men accused of being radicalised by a Pakistan-based al Qaeda module to carry out terror attacks in India.
“I still don’t know why he was picked up. He was earlier in Kerala for work. He returned home around two years back and since then has been working as a wage labourer here. I have a seven-month-old daughter,” Bibi said.
The NIA also arrested three more accused from Kerala’s Ernakulam. Murshidabad is one the three Muslim-dominated districts in West Bengal and is located along the Indo-Bangla international border, one of the most porous international borders in India.
Even the family members of 22-year-old Najmus Shakib are still in the dark as to why he was nabbed by sleuths of the central agency.
“First they questioned my elder son. My younger son (Najmus Shakib) was standing next to him. He had a beard. They asked him why he has kept beard. Then they took him upstairs and searched the room. They seized a few documents, arrested him and took him away. We still don’t know why he was arrested. He was not earning anything. He only used to study and went to the mosque regularly,” Toumana Bibi, the accused’s mother and a resident of Domkal said.
This is, however, not the first time that people with links to terrorist organizations have been picked up from the district. Earlier this year, a top Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative, allegedly involved in the January 2018 Bodh Gaya blast case, was arrested from a hideout in Murshidabad. Earlier in February 2018, another JMB operative was arrested from the district.
“I don’t know what he did. Police didn’t tell us anything. They (cops) just came around 2 am and arrested him. He was a graduate and worked as an electrician. He was not into any criminal activities,” said Sariful Islam, father of Leu Yean Ahmed, 34, a resident of Domkal area in Murshidabad.
According to data from the 2011 census, Bengal ranks fourth among the states from where people migrate. Between 2001 and 2011, 5.8 lakh people had migrated from Bengal. The number is now over 11 lakh, according to the state government. Murshidabad accounts for the most migration among all districts.
All six arrested men – Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Atitur Rehman along with Shakib, Kamal and Ahmed - were produced in a special NIA court in Kolkata on Saturday.
