Al-Qaeda recruiter most wanted in India arrested in Bangladesh
Al-Qaeda terrorist Ikramul Haque alias Abu Talha, widely described as one of ‘India’s most wanted’, was arrested in Bangladesh along with his wife in a raid recently, Bangladesh daily Prothomalo reported. He was arrested from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on May 30.
India’s ‘most wanted’ arrested: Who is Ikramul Haque alias Abu Talha?
He is the top leader of the Dawah wing of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and has nearly a dozen terrorism-related cases registered against him in India. A key recruiter for Al-Qaeda in the subcontinent, the members of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent arrested in India have named Abu Talha as their recruiter. He is known as ‘Maulana Sabet’ within Al-Qaeda.
A Bangladeshi citizen, Talha entered India on a tourist visa and admitted himself to Deoband Seminary. He later forged an Indian identity card (Aadhaar Card) in the name of Noor Hossain.
Reports in Bangladeshi media cited CTTC officials as saying that Ikramul’s wife Faria Afrin is also a member of the women’s wing of the terror group.
The hunt for India’s ‘most wanted’: How Abu Talha was arrested?
Talha was reportedly arrested on May 30 by Bangladesh’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC) officials.
According to a Dhaka-based intelligence source cited by Prothomalo newspaper, India’s anti-terrorism agencies had been seeking Ikramul since last year for his recruitment activities for an Al-Qaeda offshoot. Indian intelligence authorities discovered that Talha had escaped to Bangladesh, following which they contacted their Bangladeshi counterparts. One month before obtaining the information that Talha was one of India’s ‘most wanted’, CTTC had detained him for similar recruitment activities for Al-Qaeda.
“Ikramul Haque alias Abu Talha is the top leader of AQIS. There are at least 10 cases against him in India. He was most wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies. Recently, after some Bangladeshis were arrested as members of AQIS in Gujarat, they also named Abu Talha as a recruiter. Abu Talha along with his wife was arrested in a raid recently,” the Head of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC) of Dhaka and Additional Commissioner of DMP Asad Uz Zaman was quoted as saying by Bangla Tribune.
Abu Talha’s arrest and crackdown on Al-Qaeda offshoot in India, Bangladesh
The crackdown on Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) started in India after the arrest of a Bangladesh-based terrorist by Assam Police in March 2022. According to sources cited by news agency ANI, the arrest was a result of several months of intelligence operations run by Assam Police going back to at least September 2021. Subsequently, there have been more than 50 arrests all across India. The latest of these was by Gujarat ATS last month where 5 AQIS operatives from Bangladesh were arrested.
In October 2022, the Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested 8 AQIS members from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, some of them Bangladeshi nationals. They reportedly identified Inamul Haque alias Abu Talha as their top leader to Indian law enforcement agencies.
In May 2023, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested 4 more AQIS members from Gujarat, all Bangladeshi citizens, who too identified Ikramul Haque, alias Abu Talha, as their recruiter.
Talha regularly trained and recruited members for AQIS in India and Bangladesh.
