Assam: Two persons linked to AQIS/ABT detained in Barpeta district

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For allegedly engaging in jihadi activities, two more people with ties to Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) were detained in Assam’s Barpeta district on Sunday.

“Police also conducted an eviction drive in a Madrasa in Barpeta because it was illegally built on government land and has a connection with the two arrested accused,” said Amitava Sinha, SP, Barpeta.

On Saturday night, the two accused, Akbar Ali and Abul Kalam Azad were apprehended from a house in the district’s Sorbhog area.

“They were arrested on Sunday after being interrogated overnight,” a police officer said.

They were remanded to police custody for 10 days after being brought before a local court, he said.

Goalpara district police arrested Hafizur Rahman Mufti, a Madarsa teacher with AQIS/ABT ties, on Friday.

Madrassa teacher among those detained for engaging in jihadi activity

The Goalpara district police on Friday arrested Hafizur Rahman Mufti, who was linked to AQIS and lived in the Jogighopa area of Assam’s Bongaigaon district. Following his arrest, the police stated that Mufti was a teacher at a nearby madrasa. Friday’s arrest was the fourth in a week in connection with AQIS/ABT, according to VV Rakesh Reddy, SP Goalpara.

Two Islamic clerics who were allegedly AQIS members were detained in Goalpara on August 21. The pair were accused of radicalising Muslim youths and engaging in jihadi activities in recent years, according to local media reports.

“We’re looking into whether they have any ties to those arrested in Madhya Pradesh earlier this year.” It has been established that the AQIS has sleeper cells in districts where youths are trained to radicalise them. “Some jihadi literature and posters have been recovered,” said DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, according to media sources.

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