A Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court in Guwahati on Thursday convicted two men in a case related to recruitment and radicalisation of youth to raise a module of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) affiliated to the AQIS (Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent). The sentence against them will be pronounced on Saturday.
Jalaluddin Sheikh and Abdus Subhan, of Goalpara district in Assam, had pleaded guilty to the crime under various sections of IPC and UA(P)A in the case registered initially by Assam Police on August 22, 2022 and taken over by the NIA on September 26 the same year.
The NIA investigations had revealed that Jalaluddin had forged close connections with Abdus Subhan, who later established links with the absconding handler of ABT, namely Mehboob Alom, and went on to recruit three others into the ABT/AQIS to further the terror-related activities of the terrorist organization. The three so recruited were identified as Abdus Sobahan and Hafizur Rahman, also named as accused in the case RC- 03/2022/NIA-GUW, besides one other, namely Azmal Hussain.
The accused and other co-conspirators worked closely with the handlers of the module, namely Abu Talha, Mehaboob alias Sultan, Jahangir Alom alias Ali Noor alias Inamul Haque, Aminul Islam alias Mehadi Hassan and Saiful Islam alias Md. Suman, who were based across the border in Bangladesh. They were involved in organising gatherings at various places in Goalpara district of Assam to radicalise and recruit impressionable people into the fold of ABT/AQIS.
The NIA had, on January 30, 2023, charge-sheeted six accused under section 120B of IPC and sections 18, 18B, 38 and 39 of UA (P) Act, 1967 in the case. The Special NIA court had framed charges against all six accused persons u/s 120B of IPC and sections 38 & 39 of UA(P) Act 1967.
Further investigation in the case is on.
Comments
0 comment