2 Pakistan-trained terror operatives with Lashkar-e-Taiba links held in West Bengal's Birbhum

KOLKATA/SURI: Two Pakistan-trained terrorists having links with banned Bangladeshi terror outfit Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were arrested by the Bengal STF from Birbhum's Nalhati and Murarai on Friday morning. Sleuths suspect that they also maintained links with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) . A Birbhum court will hear the case on Saturday and asked police to keep the arrested duo in jail overnight. Police told the court that both needs to be questioned in detail in the backdrop of the ongoing hostilities with Pakistan.STF claimed that the suspects, Ajmol Hossain (28), arrested from Nalhati, and Saheb Ali Khan (28), arrested from Murarai, were involved in spreading radical ideology. "They are part of a module that is engaged in the dissemination of seditious and jihadi materials using encrypted sophisticated media and also planning to target certain persons and places," said Bengal STF SP (Operations) Indrajit Basu. They were also recruiting youths for terror organisations, he added.Intelligence sources said Hossain, who headed this module, attempted to cross over to Bangladesh for jihadi activities and have been maintaining connections across the subcontinent for the past several months. He was inducted into this terror cell several years ago. According to STF, Hossain was in touch with Pakistani handlers in PoK. Investigators are also probing his potential involvement in the recent violence in Murshidabad.Jarjes Mondal, father of Ajmol and a schoolteacher by profession, claimed his son was innocent. "My son is a village quack. The cops never told me why he was picked up."