Man claiming to be Bangladeshi terrorist caught in Silchar

Police in the Indian state of Assam have arrested a man, who claims to be a Bangladeshi terrorist.

Assam Police on Saturday arrested a youth, Sumon Aziz Laskar, 22, from the Silchar Medical College (SMC).

The police had acted on a complaint that the man was attending the fourth semester MBBS classes by faking his identity.

But it is not certain yet that he is a Bangladeshi.

Silchar, the main city in the Barak Valley, is just about 52 km from the Bangladesh border.

Cachar district Superintendent of Police Rajveer Singh said that, during preliminary police investigation, the arrested youth had claimed to be a terrorist.

He had even said that he was working for a terrorist group in Bangladesh and that he had posed as an MBBS student to gather information.

Police have also found a fake medical identity card on him.

However, police added the man frequently changed his statements. As result, his mental stability was also being doubted.

The Cachar district SP said that the police were looking for three of his accomplices, who, he claimed, had come from Bangladesh.

Although Laskar claimed he was a Bangladeshi, the police found he was an Indian from a nearby village.

However, police were still probing the terrorist theory because of a Bangladeshi SIM card and some documents, seemingly in coded language, seized form Laskar.

One of the investigating officers said he expected a clearer picture to emerge after the three men Laskar named as his friends were caught.

The college authorities had discovered Laskar was an imposter within four days of his attending class at the Silchar Medical College (SMC).

SMC principal Shilpi Barman said, “Laskar claimed he had obtained a transfer certificate from (central Assam’s) Tezpur Medical College, when there is no provision of inter-college transfers. We realised he was lying when he used different names to introduce himself to students.”

Fugitives often choose Southern Assam, also known the Barak Valley, because of its unique location. According to locals, it is easier for them to step into adjoining Bangladesh than go to any part of India.

However, it works the other as well. In 2013, the Cachar district police arrested one Abdul Shakoor, a Bangladeshi national, wanted by police in London for a double murder in 2006.

After his arrest it was found months after fleeing London, he had sneaked into India from Bangladesh, remarried in southern Assam, obtained an OBC certificate, a PAN card, and opened accounts with two nationalised banks.