Suspected LeT man picked up from Malda

“Hailing from Bangladesh,Safikul had been recruiting youths into the LeT,besides helping terrorists sneak into India. He has also provided logistical support to terrorists,” said Siddinath Gupta,IG special operations,CID.

Investigations have revealed that Safikul had recruited several LeT agents in West Bengal,Bihar,Assam and Tripura. Police also suspect his links with Pakistan-based terrorists and the Mumbai terror strikes. Raids are going on in some places across the state to nab those recruited by him.

Police,however,refused to say much. “Since it is the CID which has arrested him,ask them. I cannot comment,” said Satyajit Banerjee,the district police superintendent.

Safikul was picked up from the house of Akhtar Haji,a former Army jawan,at Harishchandrapur in Malda. Haji,who was a driver in the Army,left it in 1992 and started his own business at Harishchandrapur.

After his arrest,Safikul was brought to CID headquarters at Bhawani Bhawan later in the day. A team of Mumbai police and police officers form some other states would interrogate Safikul for his possible links to other terror plots,a CID officer said.

The officer added that Safikul’s two accomplices,Mushtaq and Hasanurzaman,were arrested on July 29 last year from Jangipur in Murshidabad on similar charges. They are at present lodged in Behrampore Central Correctional Home in Murshidabad.

Investigation revealed that Safikul had helped an LeT operative,Rajindar Azim,sneak into India from Bangladesh in 2008.

In June 2008,Safikul allegedly went to Jammu and Kashmir along with Azim,who was arrested following an encounter with the Army last month. Safikul,however,had managed to escape and came back to Malda.

Police from Mumbai and some other states,besides intelligence agencies,have been looking for Safikul,against whom Interpol had later issued a look-out notice.

During the Malda raid,CID sleuths claimed to have found nine pre-activated SIM cards,Rs 50,000 in fake notes and a voter identity card in the name of one Moti Sheikh,a resident of Raghunathgunge in Malda. Four others,including Haji,have also been picked up from various areas of Malda and are being interrogated.