On Monday, January 9, the special task force (STF) of Kolkata police arrested a person with suspected links to the Islamic State (ISIS) terror outfit. The accused, identified as Abdul Raqib Qureshi, was apprehended on Monday night in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh.
One mobile phone, one pen drive, and other incriminating articles have been recovered from Qureshi. The STF sleuths are bringing him to Kolkata on a transit remand today (January 10).
Based on the inputs from Mohammad Saddam and Syed Ahmed, the two Islamic State (IS) linkmen arrested from West Bengal’s Howrah district on January 7, the Special Task Force (STF) of #KolkataPolice arrested an important link of the terror module from Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/V7kvXHa54z
— IANS (@ians_india) January 10, 2023
The Kolkata police have said that Qureshi is an important link to the terror module that was busted on 7th January 2023 after the arrest of two suspected ISIS operatives, Mohammad Saddam and Syed Ahmed, from the eastern slope of Vidyasagar Sethu, Kolkata.
Two men arrested for suspected links with ISIS in Kolkata, West Bengal
This arrest was made based on the inputs provided by Mohammad Saddam and Syed Ahmed. The duo was under the watch of security agencies for some time as it was found that they were circulating jihadi propaganda materials for organisations like ISIS. After getting information that they were going to attend a meeting, the STF team tracked them and caught them at the Vidyasagar Sethu. Police recovered one laptop and two mobile phones from the arrested suspects.
Two persons – Md. Saddam and Sayeed Ahmed – have been arrested from the eastern slope of Vidyasagar Sethu, Kolkata for recruiting young Muslim youths and collecting arms ammunition and explosives and to raise funds for terror: West Bengal STF pic.twitter.com/lSRuHQA3Bb
— ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2023
Following the arrest, an STF official informed that a preliminary inquiry showed that Saddam and Syed’s major activities were brainwashing young people into joining the terrorist organisation ISIS and securing funding to expand their network throughout the state. The duo lived in the Howrah district of Bengal.
According to police, Md. Saddam is a mechanical engineering student at Aliah University in New Town. He, along with Syed Ahmed, used social media to brainwash youths to join militant organizations and incite them to engage in anti-national activities.
They were using propaganda videos for this purpose. Security agencies suspect that some handler in the middle east is behind them. It is suspected that Saddam was also in contact with IS operatives in Pakistan and West Asia.
