Kolkata Police reveals how al-Qaeda front’s two militants & arms dealer went about their business

Three persons, including two members of Bangladesh-based Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) - a front for al-Qaeda - and a local arms dealer, who was arrested by the city police, were sent to 14 days in police custody on Wednesday, a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.

The three were arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police from the Kolkata Railway Station on Tuesday afternoon when they allegedly met to seal an arms deal.

The Special Task Force (STF) on Wednesday also said that Montesh De, the arms dealer, used various names to live in three different places in Basirhat in North 24 Parganas.

In fact, in Baisrhat's Dakshinpara De, he was commonly known as Ziarul Gazi and has been married to a Muslim woman there for 11 years. His wife comes from Kharampur in Bangladesh.

Police also suspect that De might have illegally entered India and used fake identity cards. More so, it is thought that he met the other two Bangladeshi nationals during his stay in Bangladesh.

Shyam Rai, the landlord at where De stayed in Kholapota at Mathurapur colon from May 2013 till November 2014, said, “We did not suspect that de had links to terror organisations. In 2013, when he approached me to rent a place, i Saw his Aadhaar card and it had the name Ratan De Sarkar. I did not verify whether the card was a fake or not. In that Aadhaar card, the address given was in Ichapur in Basirhat. When I asked him what his profession was, he said he was in the fish trade and that he occasionally needs to travel out of India."

The Police had also said on Tuesday that two of the three accused - Shamsad Mia alias Tanveer alias Tushar Biswas and Riaz alias Riazul Islam, and that the three had known each other for a while.

"We have already found that De used several names to stay in several places at Basirhat. We are also interrogating the other two Bangladeshi national . We have already found links with ABT as we recovered various books from the three accused. The ABT is an al-Qaeda affiliated Islamic extremist group in Bangladesh who were allegedly responsible for killing several bloggers in Bangladesh and has direct links with the al-Qaeda network in Indian sub-continent. The Bangladesh government has declared it to be a banned organisation," said STF Deputy Commissioner Murlidhar Sharma.