The eight suspected members of the banned terrorist outfit Ansar-al-Islam Bangladesh, recently apprehended, had devised plans to target the ‘Chicken’s Neck’ corridor that connects West Bengal’s Siliguri to the northeastern states, a senior police officer revealed.
The group intended to carry out synchronised attacks in the region to destabilise the area and create large-scale instability, the officer added. West Bengal Police recovered pen drives and documents from two of the arrested individuals in Murshidabad district.
ADG Supratim Sarkar told media persosn on Friday that the two arrested suspects were part of a larger group of eight members detained by the police in Bengal, Kerala, and Assam.
The police had received information regarding a sleeper cell of the terrorist outfit, which had been active since August.
“We have recovered a 16 GB pen drive, some jihadi literature, and fake identity cards from the two suspects, identified as Abbas Ali and Minarul Sheikh. We suspect they were part of a sleeper module aiming to create instability in sensitive areas of south and north Bengal, as well as in the seven sister states of the northeast,” Sarkar said.
Further investigations revealed that the group was preparing to eliminate prominent Hindu leaders in both the eastern and northeastern regions.
The police also suspect that the suspects were planning attacks similar to the 2015 hacking of a blogger in Bangladesh.
Sarkar noted that Murshidabad had become a transit point for members of banned Bangladeshi outfits such as Ansar-al-Islam.
The group’s efforts to set up bases in Murshidabad and Alipurduar districts were uncovered during the investigation.
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