MLA Aminul Islam arrested for defending Pak in Pahalgam attack: Assam CM

Assam's opposition AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam was arrested on Thursday on sedition charges for allegedly defending Pakistan and its complicity in the Pahalgam terror attack, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

We have seen a video where the MLA is defending Pakistan and its complicity in the attack. I had instructed the police to take action and accordingly, the DGP has informed me that he has been arrested, Sarma said at a press conference here.

"The MLA will be produced before a court and we will take the case to its logical conclusion, he added.

Twenty-six people, mostly tourists, were killed in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on Tuesday.    Assam Cong MP, family to be questioned in Pak link case by SIT: CM Himanta  

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday that the Congress MP from the state, whose alleged links to Pakistan are being probed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police, will be called in for his statement in June-July, along with his family members. 

The CM claimed that evidence has been found proving that the MP's wife was being paid salary from Pakistan even when she was working in Delhi.

  “I have not named anyone, but an important functionary of Congress parliamentary party and an MP of Assam had stayed in Pakistan for 15 days without informing the central government,” Sarma said at a press conference here.

  The MP used the Atari land border to enter Pakistan rather than going by air to avoid attention, he claimed.

  Sarma said that state police's SIT, which is investigating the matter, has found “important evidence that the wife of the MP was getting salary from Pakistan for three years even when she was working in Delhi”.

  “We have statements to prove this,” he added.

  The chief minister said the MP had also undertaken a trip to Nepal during the same time.

  Noting that Pakistani spy agency ISI was "very active" in Nepal during that period, Sarma added: “The MP had no public engagement. It was a clandestine visit. We will try to join the dots and see if the two visits were connected.”

  He said the MP and his family members will be called in for their version by the SIT in June-July, with the final report to be submitted before September.

  “Assam Police will carry out the investigation as far as it can. If needed, central agencies will take it forward after that,” Sarma added.