NIA questions six arrested al Qaeda men in Kolkata

The agency plans to fly the suspects to Delhi on Monday after they are questioned by a team of the Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force (STF), officers aware of the developments said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday questioned the six al-Qaeda terrorists, a day after they were arrested from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, for more than 10 hours.

Significantly, the arrests came five days after an NIA court in Kolkata ordered seven-year jail sentences and fines for two men connected with the 2014 IED blast at Khagragarh in Burdwan district, where the banned terrorist organization Jamat-ul-Mujaheedin of Bangladesh (JMB) was operating a cell. (ANI)

The agency plans to fly the suspects to Delhi on Monday after they are questioned by a team of the Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force (STF), officers aware of the developments said.

The officials cited above said that the bank accounts of two of the men showed deposits that did not match their incomes. It is suspected that the arrested men are members of a common social media group. It is also being probed whether they had recruited people from other districts in the state.

The six men were also subjected to a medical examination on Sunday.

Significantly, the arrests came five days after an NIA court in Kolkata ordered seven-year jail sentences and fines for two men connected with the 2014 IED blast at Khagragarh in Burdwan district, where the banned terrorist organization Jamat-ul-Mujaheedin of Bangladesh (JMB) was operating a cell.

On Saturday, NIA teams conducted simultaneous raids across Ernakulam in Kerala and Murshidabad, and arrested nine men suspected to be associated with a Pakistan-sponsored module of the Al-Qaeda.

The NIA said the group was planning to undertake terrorist attacks in Delhi and at vital installations in India.