GUWAHATI: The Hizbul Mujahideen had set its sights on Assam to spread its wings.
The revelation was made by Assam Police in the aftermath of the arrest of an operative of the terrorist organisation and some of his accomplices.
Last week, the Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested Qamar-uz-Zaman, a Hizbul terrorist from Kanpur, who had allegedly planned to carry out subversive acts in the state during Ganesh Chaturthi. Later, based on his leads, seven people were arrested from Assam and Meghalaya.
That Zaman, who hails from Jamunamukh in central Assam, joined the terror group was known a few months ago when a photo of him, holding an AK-47 rifle, went viral on the social media. He went to Kashmir a few years ago to do some business. It was here that he came in touch with some Hizbul operatives and joined the terror organisation.
The police said the Hizbul Mujahideen had sought to spread its tentacles to Assam and as such, sent Zaman to Assam in August to radicalize Muslim youth.
“They wanted to involve others and had plans to do something here. Their target area was Lumding in Hojai district. Basically, they wanted to launch a start-up. We kept them in the loop but we didn’t have concrete evidence on their linkage with Hizbul Mujahideen. When he (Zaman) came, he had maintained secrecy as evident from his not visiting his house,” Hojai district police chief Ankur Jain told TNIE.
He said some of the arrests made in Assam were based on inputs.
“We are working on the leads. We have technical evidences and we are working on those,” Jain said. Assam’s Director General of Police, Kuladhar Saikia, is personally monitoring the investigation.
“Whosoever had helped him (Zaman) during his visit to Assam or hid his identity, will be viewed as parties of the conspiracy. He is a known Hizbul operative,” Jain said.
One of the seven persons arrested in Assam is Saidul Alam who has been all along a brilliant student, the police said.
Radicalization and indoctrination of Muslim youth is not new in Assam. It all started in 1990s when the state had a number of Islamic fundamentalist organisations but they met earth death. In 2014, the police had arrested one Sahanur Alam, a Jamat-Ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative, in connection with West Bengal’s Burdwan blast. Later, based on his leads, over a dozen JMB operatives were arrested in Assam.