Bengal youth arrested for ISIS links in India

The West Bengal police has arrested a Muslim youth from Birbhum for alleged links with the Islamic State, the terror group that claimed responsibility for the Gulshan cafe attack.

The 'Telegraph' reported that  central intelligence agencies had been tracking Mohammed Masiruddin alias Mosa alias Manju, 25, since Sunday after receiving information that he was on his way to Birbhum's Labhpur to kill a neighbour to "prove his mettle" to the IS.

Mosa had boarded a train from Chennai to Calcutta on his way to Labhpur. He was detained at Burdwan railway station and a machete seized from him.

"We had received information that the youth was on his way to Labhpur to kill one of his neighbours as part of his mission to prove his mettle as an IS operative," an officer said.

A retired intelligence officer said terror outfits first "test the mettle" of young recruits before handing them bigger assignments. "That's their standard way of functioning," he said.

Mosa is the second person to be arrested in Bengal in the past two months for suspected links with the IS. In March, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested Ashiq Ahmed alias Raja, a resident of Hooghly, from Durgapur.

The two arrests in Bengal over suspected IS links are significant at a time the spectre of terror outfits is looming large on the sub-continent. The arrest comes within four days of the unprecedented terror attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka.

Most of the 22 people killed were foreigners, including an Indian.

Although the Bangladesh government has said the attack was the handiwork of local terror modules, the IS has claimed responsibility.

"The person arrested today is an Indian citizen. However, his alleged links with the IS, which has claimed responsibility for the Dhaka attack, make the arrest significant," said an officer probing the case.

Intelligence agencies in India and Bangladesh have maintained for long that "hardliners" on both sides of the border share a network. The 2014 "accidental" blasts in Burdwan's Khagragarh had ripped the veil off the activities of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in Bengal.

Investigating officers said Mosa, who hails from Labhpur in Birbhum district, had established links with JMB operatives in the past few years. 

NIA sources said he was believed to have been close to Shaikul Islam Khan alias Abdullah, one of the key accused in the Khagragarh blasts.

According to the intelligence agencies, a section of JMB operatives had aligned themselves with the IS in the past few years.

In 2005, the JMB had triggered a series of blasts in 64 of Bangladesh's 65 districts within an hour, killing more than 30 people. Last year, the IS's propaganda magazine, Dabiq, had endorsed the JMB, saying it was the only "jihadi" group in Bangladesh "with the correct beliefs".

The police's preliminarily probe has revealed that after reaching Calcutta yesterday, Mosa had purchased the machete from Esplanade and boarded the Visva Bharati Fast Passenger train from Howrah on his way to Labhpur.

When the train reached Burdwan, Mosa was detained and taken to the district police headquarters, where a team of officers led by police superintendent Kunal Aggarwal questioned him through the night.

This morning, Mosa was brought to Calcutta and taken to Bhawani Bhavan, where a team of officers from the NIA and the CID questioned him. Officers of other central intelligence agencies were also present.

Mosa was arrested after almost four hours of questioning.

"We have seized a 13-inch machete from him along with an improvised firearm with three rounds of ammunition,"  Dilip Adak, deputy inspector-general of police, (operations), CID  told Telegraph.  "He might have links with IS operatives based out of India."

CID sources said data stored in Mosa's cell phone suggested he was in touch with IS leaders in Syria and Afghanistan. "He used to interact with the leaders through Facebook messenger and email," a CID officer said.

"He is believed to be a key IS operative and had been tasked with setting up modules across Bengal and other parts of the country," the officer added.

The second among five brothers, Mosa passed his higher secondary examination from Jadablal High School in Labhpur and shifted to Calcutta briefly to study in a college but dropped out. Mosa's father, Nasiruddin Ahmed Mian, is a marginal farmer.

In 2010, Mosa went to Chennai for work. The police said Mosa's brother lived there. The police said Mosa went to Tiruppur district in Tamil Nadu, 380km from Chennai, and ran a grocery store from there. They said he lived in Tiruppur with his wife and two children. According to the police, while in Tiruppur, Mosa had been working for the JMB.

"Several JMB operatives have joined the IS over past few months. Mosa is one of them," a police officer said.