11 Arrested in Assam, Tripura Over Bangladesh-Linked Radical Network
11 Arrested in Assam, Tripura Over Bangladesh-Linked Radical Network
Authorities say 11 men linked to an offshoot of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh were arrested in a coordinated Assam-Tripura operation, signaling a rising northeast security threat.
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), known as the Imam Mahmuder Kafila (IMK). The operation, conducted on Monday night (December 29, 2025), involved arrests in Assam’s Baksa, Barpeta, Chirang, and Darrang districts, and in Tripura’s West Tripura district, according to the STF chief Partha Sarathi Mahanta. The local police aided the operation, based on inputs from central agencies, 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).
The IMK is said to have been formed in 2018 by Jewel Mahmud, also known as Imam Mahmud Habibullah, an ex-JMB member. Leaders of the Ansarullah Bangla Team and Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent helped revive the IMK after the regime change in Bangladesh in August 2024, and expanded its Indian module. Encrypted recruiting platforms are used to coordinate activities; one platform named Purva Akash functions as the principal channel to radicalise, recruit, and finance followers in Assam, Tripura, and West Bengal.
The dossier notes that Nasim Uddin of Barpeta Road heads the Assam cell of the IMK. It describes a systematic process to radicalise and recruit, with Indian members being fed propaganda material and administered the bayat (pledge of allegiance). The sustained activity underscores the ongoing threat posed by Bangladesh-based groups seeking to destabilise the northeast, authorities said.
