Patna: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a suspected operative of terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) from Gopalganj for his alleged involvement in creating a sleeper cell of the banned organisation in the region.
Police sources said an NIA team from Delhi visited Gopalganj and picked up Mahfooz Alam from his house at Khajurbanni of the district headquarters town, around 210km northwest of Patna, on Thursday.
Alam, stated to be a close associate of Abdul Nayeen Sheikh and Bedar Bakhta alias Dhannu Raja, was taken to Delhi secretly for interrogation.
During interrogation, Mahfooz reportedly admitted that he was associated with the district unit of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), a claim rubbished by district president of the Congress, Iftakhar Haider. Mafooz came in contact with Dhannu while studying with him in JP University, Chhapra. Dhannu was nabbed from Gopalganj in December last year.
"Dhannu had introduced me with Abdul Nayeem Sheikh when he was living in Gopalganj about four years ago. Nayeem, who was arrested from Uttar Pradesh recently, was known as Sohail Khan in Gopalganj," a police officer quoted Mafooz as saying. Mahfooz was active on social media and had posted his photograph with Dhannu, also an NSUI leader.
Mahfooz started distancing himself from the family of Dhannu soon after his arrest. He was also called E.R. Mafooz Hashmi alias Munna Raj. He had introduced himself as a native of Maharashtra on a social networking site. "Mahfooz came under the scanner of the investigating agency when he uploaded his photo wearing a police uniform," an investigating officer said.
The arrest of Mahfooz from Gopalganj district assumed significance in the wake of interrogation of two suspected operatives of Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) identified as Sheikh Paigamber and Sheikh Jairul, who were arrested by the Calcutta police's special task force on Thursday.
A Gaya police team has been sent to Bengal to interrogate the two arrested JMB activists there. A senior police officer said on Sunday that the JMB was suspected to be involved in the last month's bomb blast and recovery of two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Bodhgaya.
The NIA and the Bihar police's anti-terrorism squad are assisting the Gaya police in the investigation of the case lodged with the Bodhgaya police. Preliminary investigation revealed that the JMB carried out the operation to retaliate the atrocities being committed on the Rohingya muslims in Myanmar.
The IEDs were planted to create panic during the religious sermon being delivered by Buddhist spiritual guru the Dalai Lama. However, a low-intensity bomb suddenly went off near a tea stall outside the Mahabodhi Mahavihara on January 19.
Last year, Tauseef Khan, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case, was arrested from Gaya.
A pen drive and a diary were seized from Tauseef's possession. He is at present lodged in Ahmedabad Central Jail.
Tauseef had his close connections with the operative of Indian Mujahideen in Jharkhand, Delhi, Bengal and Gujarat.
The Aurangabad police, on the other hand, seized a hand-written pamphlet requesting youths to join ISIS. The station house officer of Aurangabad town police station, Rajesh Kumar, however, said it was the handiwork of some criminals.
