Chirang district Superintendent of Police, Shankar Raimedhi said that on Wednesday late night, seven ‘jihadis’ were arrested after an operation from Daukhanagar and Amguri area.
They were trying to set up a training camp for physical training to their militants.
Earlier on Apr 15 and 16, police had arrested four militants belonging to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.
Inspector General of Police, LR Bishnoi of the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) said that the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen came up in Assam last year and local youths are trying to set up this organisation in the name of ‘Jihad’.
According to IGP Bishnoi, this organization follows the module of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and a few of its militants also have connections with JMB members involved in West Bengal’s Burdwan blast.
The Assam police have identified the seven militants as Joynal Abedin (32), Rezzak Ali (21), Soleman Ali (28), Dildar Ali (23), Md Nurul Islam (27), Rafiqul Islam and Ukhiluddin (33).
According to police, Joynal Abedin was a cleric in Amguri mosque.
The IGP said that two militants from West Bengal had come to impart physical training to the others, but managed to flee and thus avoid arrest. They were planning to first give physical training and then go for arms training.
The IGP added that they have their names and addresses and are in touch with their counterparts in West Bengal to have the militants arrested.
After the Burdwan blast, a few JMB members were also arrested from Assam and they were local youth.
But police claim that the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen is a new organisation that wants to set up operations based on the JMB module.
According to police, their motive is to offer protection to Bengali speaking Muslims settled in Assam.
A large number of Muslims lost their lives in the 2012 riots in Lower Assam’s Bodo majority area and ‘jihadi’ activities have increased manifold here since then.
The IGP said that police had earlier misjudged their cadres’ strength. It turned out to be lot more than estimated.
At present police are targeting 60 members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen in their operations. A total of 29 members have been arrested so far.
Last year in October, police recovered two AK 47 rifles from the ‘jihadis’.
Security strategy analysts are of the opinion that the organisations coming up in the name of ‘jihad’ must be dismantled as soon as possible to ensure that international militants cannot enter the country easily under the cover of these local organisations.
These security analysts were hinting at Shaikh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, the so-called chief of IS fighters in Bangladesh who had earlier announced that they would target Myanmar as well as India.
