The Assam Police on Thursday arrested one more person linked with Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) from Bongaigaon district.

“The person, identified as Abdus Chowhan, has been arrested from the Jogighopa police station area of the Bongaigaon district. He has very close links with two Imams who were arrested earlier,” VV Rakesh Reddy, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Goalpara district told news agency ANI.

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Earlier, the Goalpara district police arrested two Imams linked with AQIS and ABT from the lower Assam district. They have been identified as Abdus Subhan, Imam of Tinkunia Shantipur Mosque under Mornoi police station and Jalaluddin Sheikh, Imam of Tilapara Natun Mosque under Matia police station in the Goalpara district, the report stated.

Their links have been actively found with Barpeta and Morigaon modules of AQIS/ABT, Reddy said.

“Subsequently we searched their houses and found incriminating materials like Jihadi materials, books, pamphlets, posters, phones in broken condition, SIM cards. Further interrogation is going on. We have gotten some evidence which will come up subsequently after collaborating with local sources and also further interrogation. Few of them were already recruited by these persons into the Al-Qaeda network. We are trying to catch all of them and alert other districts also,” he said.

Reddy further said that names of a few areas have come up during the investigation and these areas are Char and some areas near Tilapara. Police will carry out more interrogations as the case is complex.

Their arrests followed the arrests of 23 persons, including a few from Bangladesh, in the past four months across Assam for their alleged links to AQIS and ABT and for setting up ‘jihadi’ sleeper cells.