Assam Police Claims Few Youth in State Getting Close to Terror Groups

Hizbul linkman nabbed from Hojai

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Sept 14: Referring to an alarming development, the Assam Police has revealed that some youths of the State are maintaining close links with several dreaded terrorist groups.

Talking to The Sentinel, Special Director General of Police (SB) Pallab Bhattacharyya said, “Assam Police have received definite inputs of a number of fundamentalist groups operating in Assam. Just after the October 2, 2014 Burdwan blast, we collected some modules related to the terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in Assam. Since about one year, a few youths have been actively maintaining relations with several such terrorist groups. We are mobilizing our resources and expertise to track such youths soon.”

The revelation that has come close on heels of the arrest of Kamruj Zaman by the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh Police from Kanpur on Thursday on charges of his association with the terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, has already sent the alarm bells ringing in the security circuit.

On other hand, the Assam Police on Thursday night apprehended Md. Sahanawaj Alom from the Nilbagan area of Hojai on charges of being a linkman of Hizbul Mujahideen. Alom during the course of subsequent interrogation also confessed of maintaining regular contacts with Kamruj Zaman. Alom also confessed that on August 10, he had provided one Samsung mobile phone with Sim card to Kamruj Zaman and also provided other assistance secretly.

In this regard, a case has been registered.

Meanwhile, intense interrogation of Kamruj Zaman alias Huraira aka Qamruddin is being carried out in Kanpur, sources said.

Kamruj had plans to attack public places during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Video grabs of a prominent city temple were found from his mobile phone.

He was sent by the Hizbul commanders to do a recce of the area and then carry out an attack, a police official privy to the development said.

The ATS is now trying to know from him about the duration of his stay in Uttar Pradesh, if he has more accomplices, what were his other targets and where did he get funds from.

Intelligence agencies had been working on him for some time now, and based on leads collected over a period of time, he was arrested on Thursday from Shiv Nagar under Choker Police Station in Kanpur.

During the initial interrogation, he has accepted that he is a member of Hizbul Mujahideen and that he was in Kanpur to carry out a major terror activity.

Investigations have also revealed that during 2008-2012, he was in Republic of Palau, an island country near Philippines.

Kamruj first came into limelight after he posted his picture with an AK-47 in the social media in April this year. He also informed the police and ATS officials that he was trained by handlers in Kashmir in April 2017 in the thickets and mountainous region of Kishtwar. He is a graduate dropout from a college in Assam and has a diploma in computer course and typing.