11 arrested in Assam, Tripura for links with Bangladesh radical group

Assam’s Special Task Force (STF) arrested 11 people in two northeastern States for their alleged links with a radical offshoot of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an extremist group banned in India.

The members of the newly-formed Imam Mahmuder Kafila (IMK) — 10 from Assam’s Baksa, Barpeta, Chirang, and Darrang districts, and one from Tripura’s West Tripura district — were arrested in a coordinated operation on Monday (December 29, 2025) night, STF chief and Guwahati Police Commissioner Partha Sarathi Mahanta said.

The local police helped the STF nab the 11 men, based on the analysis of inputs on activities of the IMK module in India provided by the Central agencies, Mr. Mahanta said. “These jihadist elements were working under the direct orders of Bangladesh-based groups. Their main aim was to destabilise the northeast,” he told journalists in Guwahati on Tuesday (December 30, 2025).

According to information collected by the Indian security apparatus, the IMK was formed in 2018 by Jewel Mahmud, also known as Imam Mahmud Habibullah, an ex-JMB member. Apart from the JMB, leaders of the Ansarullah Bangla Team and Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent helped activate the IMK after the regime change in Bangladesh in August 2024, and expand its Indian module.

Most of the leaders and members of these radical groups were released from prisons across Bangladesh after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government.

“The activities are coordinated through secure social media platforms. One of these, Purva Akash, functions as the principal platform to radicalise, recruit, and finance people in Assam, Tripura, and West Bengal,” the dossier on the IMK read.

It said that one Nasim Uddin of Barpeta Road town heads the Assam cell of the IMK.

The dossier said that the IMK module employs a systematic process to radicalise and recruit followers. The Indian members are fed with propaganda material and administered the ‘bayat’ (pledge of allegiance) to the outfit’s chief Habibullah. The oaths in audio-visual form are forwarded to him for verification and acceptance.

“The IMK also exploits social and religious gatherings,” the dossier said, citing a December 28, 2024 meeting in Barpeta, where the group’s ideologues, including Nasim Uddin, advocated violent armed struggle in India.

The STF said some IMK recruits visited Bangladesh on valid passports and visas for training, which included bomb-making. Meetings between Assam-based members and their Bangladeshi handlers have taken place in Meghalaya, it claimed.

The STF further said that the financial trail has led to UPI transactions and hawala transactions between the IMK’s Bangladesh and Indian members.

Police have registered a case against the 11 alleged IMK members under Sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 along with relevant provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.