'Reputed People' under Assam Police Scanner

GUWAHATI: In the aftermath of the arrest of Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative Sahanur Alam, the Assam Police are now closely watching some “reputed people” who hail from outside the North-East region.

The police said the persons had some “extra agenda” and they visited the state especially during ethnic riots.

“Our focus is now on some people who are from Kerala and some other states (in the mainland).

They are all reputed people,” Assam’s Director General of Police Khagen Sarma told Express on Sunday.

“They come with some extra agenda. They come to the state especially when there are some riots,” he said without elaborating further.

His reference was, perhaps, to the 2012 ethnic riots between tribal Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims in the Bodoland Territorial Areas District.

The riots had left over 100 people dead and several thousand others displaced.

Recently, in the wake of the arrest of some people in Assam for their alleged links to the Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, the Assam Police had said that they were closely monitoring the activities of some institutions and NGOs.

Meanwhile, Sahanur is currently being interrogated at the special branch of the Assam Police here. He was arrested on Friday from the state’s Nalbari district. Subsequently, a local court remanded him in 14 days’ police custody.

His role in jihadi activities came to the fore following the accidental bomb blast incident at Burdwan in West Bengal.

Investigators probing the case found that he played a key role in spreading jihadi propaganda and was closely connected to JMB leaders in West Bengal and Bangladesh.

The National Investigation Agency, which is probing the blast case, is likely to seek his custody.

An National Investigation Agency source said a superintendent of the agency from New Delhi would quiz Sahanur either on Monday or Tuesday.

Sahunur’s family had earlier appealed to him through the media to surrender.