Kol Police STF arrest JMB terrorist from Babughat

Kolkata: Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police nabbed a Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terrorist from Babughat area in the wee hours of Saturday. The accused person, identified as Ariful Islam, alias Arif, alias Ataur, alias Akjtarul, alias Mota Anas, alias Shahid of Barpeta in Assam was wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Bodh Gaya serial blast case.

According to sources, after the serial blast in Bodh Gaya in July 2013, Ariful took shelter somewhere in Bengaluru. There he committed several robberies and other crimes along with his associates. He was close to Kausar who was arrested by the NIA in August last year from Bengaluru for his involvement in Khagragarh blast in Burdwan.

Recently, Ariful came to Kolkata to hatch a plan to release Kausar from Alipore jail. For that he was doing a recce on how to act against the police and NIA to make way for Kausar. After arresting him, sleuths have found route maps which the cops and the NIA use to take Kausar to Bankshall Court and back to Alipore jail every 14 days. Also, a map of Kolkata has been found in his possession.

Previously, he had implemented such operations in Bangladesh to release Kausar from the Bangladesh Police successfully. He was working in Kolkata to carry out similar plans. Sources informed that the NIA may appeal before the concerned court to take Ariful in their custody for interrogation as he was marked absconding in the Bodh Gaya blast case. The Kolkata Police officials are marking this arrest as a success as two major JMB terrorists have been nabbed within two weeks. Previously, in the first week of this month, the STF nabbed a JMB terrorist, identified as Abdul Matin, from Kerala.

Matin is also from Barpeta. He obtained training from Simulia madarsa and Mokimnagar madarsa along with other accused persons in the Khagragarh blast case. He became an active member of the JMB since 2010 when he was studying at Sher Shah madarsa at Malda's Kaliachak.

He also had close connections with other JMB terrorists including Nasirullah, Moulana Yousuf, Saidul, Jahudul and Saikul.