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Three associates of Hizbul operative arrested in Assam, were planning to set up base
Shahnawaj Alam and Saidul Alam were arrested from Hojai while Omar Farooq, another Hizbul operative’s associate, was arrested from the outskirts of Guwahati, police said.
Assam Police have arrested three associates of Hizbul Mujahideen operative Kamar-uz-Zaman, who was nabbed in Kanpur on Thursday, and unearthed an alleged plot by the terror outfit to set up base in the state, police said.
“Shahnawaj Alam and Saidul Alam were arrested from Hojai on Friday and Saturday respectively while Omar Farooq, another associate, was arrested from the outskirts of Guwahati. Their interrogation is on,” Assam Police DGP Kuladhar Saikia said on Sunday.
Omar Farooq’s statements before local television channels after his arrest and the interrogation of the trio reveal that Zaman, who hails from Assam and had visited the state last month, was trying to set up an organisation in the state.
Police said the arrests come after Zaman’s interrogation in Uttar Pradesh where he was arrested by the UP Anti Terror Squad on Thursday. A team of the Assam Police is in UP to question him.
“The arrests have come after inputs from the team interrogating Zaman,” said Pallab Bhattacharya, Special Director General of Police, Special Branch, the intelligence wing of the state police.
“Like Zaman, the others who have bee apprehended have had worked in Jammu and Kashmir at some point and it is possible that they came in touch with these groups there,” he said, adding that more details will emerge in the course of the investigation.
“Zaman visited Assam in August for three to four days,” said Ankur Jain, Superintendent of Police, Hojai. “He was trying to set up some kind of an organisation here,” he added.
Shahnawaj Alam was the first one to be picked up after inputs from Zaman’s interrogation. “He provided a phone and a sim card to Zaman,” Jain said.
Shahnawaj, who has a pharmacy degree and dabbles in multi-level marketing is Zaman’s old friend and both went to the same school, according to police. “Saidul, a dropout who lives in a local Madrassa, is also his associate. He, too, was in touch with him,” Jain said.
Zaman had reportedly stayed for a few days at Farooq's place when he visited Assam in August.
After Zaman’s photo surfaced on Facebook in April, the Assam Police had taken statement of his family and kept a close watch on his associates, including his friends and family, the police said.
Yet, he managed to come to Assam and meet his close associates, as the police claims. “He must have come surreptitiously,” Bhattacharya said. “Such ideologies will not survive in Assam. There have been attempts in the past, too. Assam has rejected them,” he said.
