by Bhupen Goswami

GUWAHATI : The Assam police is of the view that the youth of the riot-hit regions of Assam are the “most vulnerable” to motivation by these jihadi groups. To set up the hubs in Assam and West Bengal, their ploy has been to get a local identity by marrying the local women. Based on the interrogations of the arrested members of JuMB, it has come to pass that radical Islamic forces are trying to make inroads into the Muslim-dominated areas of the State.

They have been reportedly instructed to remain as sleeper cells and hunt for potential Muslim youths who will readily join the jihad campaign. Besides ideological indoctrination, these sleeper cells had also undergone training in handling explosives at madrasas in Burdwan and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal. Is Jihadi activity in Assam on the rise? That certainly seems to be the case, as yet another youth from Assam has been apprehending due to his alleged connection to Jihadi groups. The youth in question, a certain Mustafizur Rahman, was picked up near his residence at Chatala in Barpeta district. A Barpeta local reports: “He was picked up from his shop by authorities. They came in two SUVs — a Bolero and a Scorpio. Two people who appeared to be army jawans disembarked and took him into custody. The incident happened at around 6:30 in the evening on Saturday. Acting on a tip off, Assam’s Bajali police on Tuesday apprehended three ‘jihadis’ from Barpeta district. The accused were identified as Yakub Ali, Hafizur Rahman, and Sariful Islam.

According to official sources, Hafizur Rahman who has been arrested by Bhabanipur police is lodged at Bhabanipur Police Station and it is suspected that he is a member of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) of Bangladesh. Upon interrogation, Hafizur revealed that he is an expert in assembling bombs, weapons and physical training. He further revealed that he had been giving training at terror pads at Baksa and Barpeta district to strengthen the militant groups in the region. Hafizul also mentioned that Yakub is also a member of the terrorist group JMB.