Kolkata Police arrest 3rd IS man from MP’s Khandwa

Kolkata: 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 Kolkata Police arrested an important link of the terror module from Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh.

The arrest was made on Monday night, and the person has been identified as Abdul Raqib Qureshi. The STF sleuths are bringing him to Kolkata on a transit remand on Tuesday only, city police source said.

It is learnt that Qureshi has been booked under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) and Section 121 (waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against Indian government) of the Indian Penal Code.

“Before his active association with IS, Qureshi was a senior and active leader of the banned outfit, Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and he was the key person in inspiring Mohammad Saddam to join the IS. Later Saddam brainwashed and roped in Syed Ahmed to the terror module,” the city police source said.

It is learnt that besides brainwashing local youths to join the IS, Qureshi was also responsible for procuring arms and distribution of the same to the new recruits.

Meanwhile, from the diary seized from the residence of Mohammad Saddam, the STF sleuths have tracked an oath statement of joining the IS, which was written in Arabic.

Mohammad Saddam and Syed Ahmed were arrested on Saturday afternoon by the STF sleuths while the two were on their way to attend a secret meeting at Khidirpur area in Kolkata.

Earlier, the STF sleuths recovered from their devices, crucial clues on how the two, especially Mohammad Saddam, used to contact his IS handlers in Syria and Saudi Arabia using the Telegram Web medium. The recovery of such crucial clues, especially the ones related to the videos and still photographs about the activities of the suicide squad modules of IS have kept the investigating sleuths worried.
IANS