Top LeT man held in Malda

Statesman News Service

KOLKATA, Jan 13: An alleged Lashkar-e-Tayyaba activist, Mohammed Safikul, was arrested from Malda by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers today. He was produced before the Jangipur court in Murshidabad and remanded in police custody for two weeks. A former Army jawan, Hazi Akhtar Hossain, was arrested tonight from his residence at Mohanpur village in Malda for allegedly providing shelter to Safikul.

Hailing from Bangladesh, Safikul had been recruiting youths into the terror outfit, said a senior CID officer. Investigation has further revealed that Safikul had recruited many LeT agents in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Tripura. Sleuths suspect that Safikul had also supplied RDX and other explosives to a group of Pakistan-based terrorists who had masterminded the attacks on Mumbai hotels in November last year. Raids are on in some other places across the state to nab those who were recruited as LeT agents by Safikul.

Acting on a Central Intelligence tip-off, Safikul was arrested from the house of a former Army jawan at Harishchandrapur in Malda this morning by officers belonging to the CID’s Special Operation Group. He had come there to attend a function, said a senior CID officer. Safikul was brought to the CID headquarters at Bhawani Bhavan later in the day. A team of Mumbai police and police officers belonging to some other states would interrogate Safikul, a CID officer said.

The officer added that Safikul's two accomplices ~ Mushtaq and Hasanurzaman ~ were arrested on 29 July last year from Jangipur in Murshidabad on similar charges. They are lodged in Berhampore Central correctional home.

Investigation revealed that Safikul had helped another LeT operative, Rajindar Azim, sneak into India from Bangladesh through porous borders in the middle of 2008. Azim had stayed at Mushtaq’s house for a month before shifting to Hasanurzaman’s residence at Jangipur.

In June 2008, Safikul went to Jammu and Kashmir along with Azim who was arrested following an encounter with the Army last month. Safikul, however, had managed to escape that time. He then came back to Malda and took shelter in the house of Hossain.

Nine pre-activated SIM cards, fake Indian currency worth Rs 50,000 and a forged voter identity card were seized from Safikul. He was booked under sections 120 (B), 121 (A), 121, 122, 124 and 212 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

( Other newspaper reported that Safikul was arrested on late Monday from Kauamari village)