2 of banned Ansar Bangla Team, a firearms dealer in police net

Kolkata: In a major breakthrough, Kolkata Police's Special Task Force (STF) arrested two members of Bangladeshi terrorist organisation, Ansar Bangla Team that is a part of Al-Qaeda network in Indian sub-continent and an arms dealer from Kolkata Station situated in the northern fringes of the city on Tuesday afternoon.

Samsad Mia (26), alias Tanvir, and Rizaul Islam (25), alias Riyaz are active members of the banned Ansar Bangla Team, which is involved in killings of bloggers in Bangladesh. Both Tanvir and Rizaul are Bangladeshi nationals while the arms dealer, Monotosh De, is from Basirhat in North 24 Parganas. Monotosh was assigned to supply firearms to the duo to carry out terror activities.

Murlidhar Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police, said: "Teams comprising officers of the Kolkata Police's STF were conducting raids and combing operations at different places in and around the city. After receiving a tip-off from the Central intelligence agency that had alerted the city police during the end of Durga Puja and when the countdown of the FIFA Under-17 Football World Cup was about to start, raids were conducted at Kolkata Station and the trio was arrested when they assembled to discuss an arms deal."

Both Samsad and Rizaul were having fake Aadhaar cards in their possession in the names of Tushar Biswas and Suman respectively. They confessed to the police that they are active members of Ansar Bangla Team and they had been staying in India for the past one-and-a-half years. The police are trying to ascertain how they managed to get the fake Aadhaar cards and names of the other states where they went during their stay in India without any valid passport and visa.

Though police found several documents from them that establishes their motive of carrying out some sort of activities in some parts of the country, the investigating officers would grill them further to ascertain their exact plan as they went to some shops to buy chemicals which are needed to make explosives. The police found visiting cards of the chemical shops in the city where they had visited.

The suspicion of the cops deepened as they found some pieces of papers on which they had noted down names of some important installations in the city including Eden Gardens and Esplanade Bus Terminus.

They were also possessing several documents including books meant for Al-Qaeda activists, books on making explosives and books to learn how to do a recce of a place. The books were in both English and Bengali. Police also seized firearms including a 7.32 mm revolver and a single shotter gun from the accused.

During interrogation soon after their arrest, they told the police that they used to stay at railway platforms or market places instead of checking into any hotel to avoid getting arrested.

They had established a contact with Monotosh, who assured them of supplying firearms. They had decided to assemble two to three times earlier. But for some reason, it had not materialised and they finally met at Kolkata Station where Monotosh showed them some firearms. It is learnt that they asked Monotosh to show them more developed firearms and decided to meet again later.