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.