Kolkata, August 15: Police in West Bengal‘s Birbhum district conducted a raid in Rampurhat on Friday, uncovering a significant stash of gelatin sticks.
According to a police officer from the district, a team from the Rampurhat police station acted on a tip-off and raided a private residence in the Bathan Para area of Ayas village. During the operation, they recovered 304 gelatin sticks from the house.
The homeowner, Shariful Islam, was initially questioned and later arrested. He was taken to the Rampurhat police station and subsequently presented in the Birbhum district court, where he was ordered to be held in police custody.
Investigating officers are currently interrogating Shariful Islam about the source of the gelatin sticks and the purpose of storing them at his residence. The police are trying to determine whether this large stockpile was intended for any militant activities in the district or state.
This incident marks the third significant case of explosive seizures in Birbhum district within the last two months. On July 25, officials from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seized a large quantity of explosives, including 20 bags of ammonium nitrate and several detonators, during a raid in Nahati, also in Birbhum. One person was arrested in that case.
Following that, on July 29, police in Birbhum recovered 800 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, 12,400 gelatin sticks, 105 detonators, and 36 detonating fuse coils from a house in the Lakhanamara village of Nalhati block. This area is known as a hub for stone quarries in Birbhum district.
Recently, following the arrests of suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) associates Hamim Mandal and his close associates Arpita Sarkar and Aditya Singh alias Raj, the intelligence wing of West Bengal police has heightened surveillance.
It was later revealed that Hamim and Arpita had close ties with the Pakistani terrorist-criminal group known as the Shahzad Bhatti Network (SBN). Earlier this week, the state police’s Special Task Force arrested Pakistani national Wahab Alam, linked to Pakistan’s powerful military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), along with his local accomplice Mohammad Ijaz.
Leave a Comment