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NIA Arrests Six in Assam Over Cross-Border Terror Probe

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The NIA arrested six men in Assam's Barpeta district and searched 16 sites across three states in the Imam Mahmuder Kafila terror investigation.

The National Investigation Agency detained six men in Assam's Barpeta district on Tuesday and combed through 10 premises in the state as it pursues an alleged plot involving cross-border militancy and recruitment, a senior police officer said.

The raids were part of a wider sweep that took investigators to 16 addresses in Assam, West Bengal and Kerala. The case centres on a group called Imam Mahmuder Kafila (IMK), which the NIA regards as a splinter faction of the outlawed Bangladeshi outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Police named the six people held in Barpeta as Mustafizur Rahman and Yakub Ali, both of Barpeta Road; Rakibul Islam of Howly; and Zakir Hussain, Chandbar Ali and Faruk Abdullah from the Sarbhog area. The agency had not released a formal statement on the detentions by the time the arrests were reported.

Officers went through the homes of several of those taken into custody along with other locations, according to police. The operation began in the early hours in more than one instance.

Families describe pre-dawn raids

At Faruk Abdullah's house, relatives said a team arrived at about 2am and conducted a search. His father recounted that officials took away two mobile phones and inspected identity papers, among them Aadhaar and PAN cards. He said Abdullah, a graduate, has spent close to five years employed at a computer shop and is married. The father added that his son is the household's sole breadwinner and that the family was given no reason for his arrest.

Rakibul Islam's relatives said they were first told he had been brought to a police station, only to discover afterwards that he had been formally detained. They said Islam had earned a living selling chicken in Arunachal Pradesh before coming back home roughly a year ago, and had been without work since his return.

The agency also examined Mustafizur Rahman's residence at Azad Nagar in Barpeta Road and took his phone, his relatives said. According to the family, a team arrived around 5am on Tuesday and departed at 8.15am, seizing the device and detaining Rahman.

A second arrest for Rahman

Rahman, who runs a clothing shop in Barpeta Road, had already been through the justice system this year. His family said the Assam Police Special Task Force (STF) picked him up on March 14 in a matter linked to suspected jihadi activity. He was granted bail after spending about three months in Guwahati Central Jail. Relatives said that earlier detention stemmed from a social media group discovered on his phone.

The latest action builds on a case the NIA inherited from state investigators. In December last year, the Assam STF led a multi-state drive that resulted in the arrest of 11 people during searches in Assam, Tripura and West Bengal. The central agency subsequently took charge of the matter.

In June this year, the NIA filed a chargesheet against those 11 suspected JMB operatives. The agency said the accused had worked to spread the extremist doctrine of IMK, the JMB offshoot at the heart of the current probe. The chargesheet was submitted to the NIA special court in Guwahati under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The fresh detentions in Barpeta extend that line of inquiry, with investigators focusing on how the network allegedly operated across state lines and beyond the border. The seized phones and documents are expected to feed into the ongoing examination of the group's contacts and activities.

NIA Assam arrests, Imam Mahmuder Kafila, Barpeta terror probe, JMB India, cross-border terror conspiracy, UAPA NIA chargesheet, Assam radicalisation network

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