NGOs in Assam under police scanner over jihadi link

The Assam Police and NIA have intensified their search for absconding Burdwan blast suspect Shahnur Alom, and police Wednesday said they were also probing some NGOs for their probable links with Islamist terror networks.

"Terror networks or outfits propagating jihadi ideologies may take help of anything like madrassas, various organisations and NGOs," Director General of Police Khagen Sarma told journalists.

"We have put the activities of some NGOs under vigil and we are scanning some NGOs to find out if they had received unaccounted donations or donations from unauthorised people," he said.

Asked about Shahnur Alom -- fugitive activist of the Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who was involved in the Oct 1 Burdwan blast, the DGP said investigations were on to trace him.

"We have got some information by interrogating his wife Sujina Begum. It is difficult to say where he is right now but we have received some leads and we hope to nab him soon," he said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had raided the fugitive's Chatala village in Barpeta district three times in the last few days and also checked the bank accounts of Shahnur and his wife in various places in the district.

Although Shahnur and Sujina had fled the village, police arrested Sujina earlier this month from Guwahati.

NIA sources said they have summoned four people - including the village head of Chatala - for interrogation to the agency's Guwahati office. The NIA has asked the village head to submit a list of people who had disappeared from the village in the last few months.

A team from the central agency Wednesday visited Dhubri district and met the police superintendent.