Suspect IS operative held from Bengal

A 25-year-old man, suspected to have links with the Islamic State (IS) was arrested here on Tuesday by the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The accused, identified as Mohammad Masiuddin alias Musa, was on Monday detained from the Burdwan railway station, and brought to the CID headquarters in the city Tuesday where he was formally arrested.

Masiuddin was picked up by police from the Vishwa Bharti passenger train while he was on his way to his home in Labhpur in Birbhum district.

"We had intelligence input of a suspect having links with the IS, going to Birbhum via Howrah from Chennai. On this basis, we intercepted Masiuddin at Burdwan railway station on Monday," said Deputy Inspector General, CID, Dilip Kumar Adak.

A native of Labhpur, Masiuddin used to live in Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu along with his wife and two children and worked in grocery shop.

"We have recovered a 13-inch-long knife, an improvised fire arm and three bullets. We are also verifying the data from his mobile phone. Several intelligence agencies including central agencies are interrogating him," said Adak.

"Preliminary interrogations have revealed he might have links with foreign extremists. We are also not ruling out his involvement with the IS," he added.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which in March arrested an engineering student from the district, suspected to be an IS facilitator, has also been part of the interrogation.

The arrest comes in the wake of the deadly terror attack in Dhaka in which 20 people were killed. The state has been on high alert with the Border Security Force intensifying vigil across the Indo-Bangladesh border.

An accidental blast at a house in Khagragarh in Burdwan district in October 2014 led to the NIA busting a terror module of Bangladeshi militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.

--IANS

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