Pune: Youth held for alleged IS recruitment

Pune: The Pune anti-terrorist squad (ATS) and Bihar ATS in a joint operation in Pune on Thursday arrested a Bangladeshi youth who is a member of the Islamic State Bangladesh, and was allegedly recruiting youth for the ISIS from India. He was working as a labourer and recruiting people for the Islamic State, a banned terrorist outfit.

The arrested accused has been identified as Shriyat Anwarulhaq Mandal (19). According to the police, Mandal told them that he was a resident of Bajipur, Panchayat Gajna, Nadiya district. The accused was working as a construction labourer and the Pune ATS arrested him from Khalumbre, Chakan, in Pune.

According to ATS officials, “The Bihar ATS approached ATS Maharashtra for help to arrest an accused in their CR No 1/2019 of March 24, 2019, u/s 18,38 UAPA read with sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of the IPC read with section 14 of the Foreigners Act.”

As per information given by the Bihar ATS, Mandal is a member of the Islamic State of Bangladesh and has been recruiting people from India to the ISIS.

The accused arrested from Pune was produced at the Shivaji Nagar court. The court remanded him to transit to the Bihar ATS. Now, the Bihar ATS will produce him before the concerned court in Bihar for his regular remand.

Earlier, the Bihar ATS had arrested two other people Khairul Mandal and Abu Sultan. Both are alleged members of the banned organisations Jamat-ul-Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) and Islamic State of Bangladesh (ISBD).