JMB operative arrested near Kolkata specialised in forging ID cards: Official – Hindustan Times

Kolkata News

KOLKATA: A suspected operative of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was nabbed on Tuesday by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from South 24 Parganas district’s Subhasgram village about 30 kilometres south of Kolkata, officers aware of the developments said.

The man, identified as Abdul Mannan and suspected to be a Bangladeshi national, was arrested from a one-room accommodation he rented in a slum area two years ago. His neighbours told NIA officers that they had no reason to suspect that Mannan could be working for terrorists. He used to leave in the morning and return at night, the neighbours said.

The NIA did not make any official statement on Abdul Mannan’s arrest till Wednesday evening.

Officers said he used to provide forged Indian identity cards and documents to JMB sleeper cell members of whom three were arrested in July this year from Haridevpur in the southern outskirts of the state capital by the special task force (STF) of the Kolkata Police.

The three JMB members, Naziur Rahman Pavel, Mekail Khan and Rabiul Islam, are Bangladeshi nationals. “They were living in a rented room in Haridevpur after illegally entering India. Naziur Rahman was the local leader of the group,” said an officer who did not want to be identified.

The JMB operatives were working for Ansar Ali Hriday, who was jailed in Bangladesh two years ago on charges of committing robberies to raise funds for terror activities. He was siphoning part of the money to India to run his private business, the STF found during the probe. These intelligence inputs were shared with NIA.

Lalu Sen alias Rahul Sen, the alleged Indian link of Ansar Ali Hriday, was also arrested in July.

Although Ansar Ali’s whereabouts are not known to security agencies, interrogation of the suspects has exposed a well-organised cell which the JMB refers to as markaz, which, in Arabic, means centre.

Investigation revealed that Ali used to send money to India through hawala operators apparently keeping other JMB leaders in Bangladesh in the dark. This money was invested in several businesses that have Indian partners, the agencies have found.

“Ali also runs a human trafficking racket that has sent Bangladeshi men to several European countries. For this, the JMB needed forged documents such as Aadhaar cards. Mannan is suspected to be one of the key players in this forgery. He may have had other roles also,” an officer said on condition of anonymity.

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