STF arrests one more terror suspect

Barely four days after arresting a terror suspect from Dadpur in Hooghly, the Bengal Special Task Force (STF) on Saturday morning arrested another suspect whom they claim has close ties with the Al Qaeda in Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS), an affiliate group of Al Qaeda and its regional member, the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) of Bangladesh.

The accused Nannu Mia (40), who was allegedly on the run since March last year, was arrested from Howrah station. This is the fifth arrest by Bengal STF since last year as it kept pursuing leads on the AQIS.

“A resident of Dinhata in Cooch Behar, Nannu was arrested in connection with the ongoing probe of a case registered at Shashan police station. He faces multiple charges under IPC and UAPA,” said SP (Bengal STF, Operations) Indrajit Basu.

Cops said that Nannu, who has been trained in evading electronic surveillance, was active mainly in north Bengal. “He maintained liaison with his south Bengal counterparts and leaders of Al-Barr-e-Saagir (Al Qaeda in Indian subcontinent) who operate from Bangladesh. These leaders, in turn, kept liaison between Al-Nusra Front (Syria) and Al-Shabaab (Somalia) to come under one wing. Nannu was also a major recruiter for his (chief) Osama Mehmud. Nannu, along with others, are followers of Asim Mehmud, the previous chief. Asim, who hailed from UP, was supposedly killed in Afghanistan in an US operation in 2019.

Source » timesofindia