One more person with 'links' to Bangladeshi terror outfit Ansarul Islam arrested in Assam

Barpeta (Assam):) One more person with alleged links to Bangladeshi terror outfit Ansarul Islam has been arrested in Assam's Barpeta district, police said on Saturday.

The person, identified as Abu Bakkar, had surrendered before the police on August 3 and was arrested on Friday night after interrogation.

He was produced before a court on Saturday and remanded to five days of police custody.

"During interrogation, ample evidence was found indicating Bakkar's direct links with Ansarul Islam which was earlier called Ansarul Bangla Team. He carried out Jihadi activities under the guise of a common farmer," a police officer said.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had recently claimed in a press conference in Guwahati that five modules with links to Ansarul Islam were busted in the state in the last five months.

He said six Bangladeshi terrorists of the outfit had infiltrated Assam to indoctrinate youths and one of them was arrested when the first module was busted in Barpeta in March this year.

Five people were arrested when the first module was arrested, following which 11 were nabbed in March and April, and nine on the intervening night of July 26 and 27.

Observing that Assam had become a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism, he said even slain Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had mentioned "Jihad in Assam" which proves the state is on the radar of the radicals.

On the arrests, he said that earlier there were isolated incidents but not anymore, and that the police and central agencies are keeping strict surveillance.