Bangladeshi national suspected of spying held from Indo-China border

The ISIS suspect, identified as Mohammad Mustaf Hussain was spotted moving under suspicious circumstances and was arrested on charges of spying.
For representational purpose. | File Photo
For representational purpose. | File Photo

SHIMLA: A Bangladeshi national, suspected by police to be linked with ISIS, has been arrested close to the Indo-China border.     

The ISIS suspect, identified as Mohammad Mustaf Hussain was spotted moving under suspicious circumstances and was arrested on charges of spying from a place close to ITBP camp near Lapcha village in Spiti tehsil of the district on May 4, Superintendent of Police, Lahaul Spiti, Raman Kumar Meena said.

Hussain, a resident of Malikganj district of Bangladesh, was being interrogated but so far he has not revealed much and the investigating agencies are finding it difficult to judge that he was mentally stable or unsound, a police official said.     

It was after great efforts that the police was able to extract on May 7 that he was Bangladesh national, Meena said.     

Hussain, who was produced in a local court and was remanded to three days police custody.    

Investigations are in progress and a case under section 123 (Concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war) and 124(A) (sedition) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered.     

"Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspected spy was living in the area for past few weeks", police sources added.     

Hussain fluently speaks Hindi, English and Bangla and a mobile phone, manufactured in Bangladesh has been recovered from his possession, police sources said.     

However, the SIM card he was using was destroyed before the police nabbed him.     

Besides, 2-kg of flour and 4 bottles of tomato sauce were also recovered from the possession and it was suspected that he was especially trained in adapting to harsh climatic conditions of Spiti, known as cold deserts, a police source said.     

The state Police officials have informed central intelligence agencies about the arrest and they are expected to join investigations as Indo-Tibet was a very sensitive area from defence point of view. 

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