The National Investigation Agency arrested four men in West Bengal on September 29, 2026, during searches connected to suspected links with Imam Mahmuder Kafila, described by investigators as an offshoot of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh. The Times of India reported raids at five Bengal locations and six arrests in Assam during the wider operation, which also extended to Kerala.
The Bengal arrests included Piar Mohammad, an imam in Palishgram, and tailor Jummaan Sheikh from Mithapukur in Budge Budge. Saharul Haque Purkayet and Abdur Rafique were also arrested. Investigators seized documents and electronic devices, the newspaper reported. It attributed to NIA sources the claim that encrypted-app conversations recovered after earlier arrests had led investigators to the men.
In Assam, PTI's Bhasha service reported searches beginning on September 28 at night in the Howly, Barpeta Road and Sorbhog police-station areas. Officials identified those arrested as Faruk Abdullah, Zakir Hussain, Chandbar Ali, Mustafizur Rahman, Yakub Ali and Rakibul Islam. Islam's father told the agency that documents supplied by investigators referred to his son's alleged connection with a Telegram group called Eastern Sky.
The Assam reporting also supplied the family's account of Islam's movements: he ran a poultry business in Daporijo in Arunachal Pradesh and had returned home about 15 days earlier. The allegation about the online group was presented as his father's description of the arrest documents, rather than a finding by a court. Officials alleged that the operation concerned recruitment and radicalisation of young people.
Guwahati-based G Plus reported that the searches followed charges filed earlier in 2026 against 11 people in an IMK-related conspiracy before the NIA Special Court in Guwahati. Citing the agency's earlier statement, it said investigators alleged clandestine meetings, extremist literature and digital propaganda were used to expand the organisation's presence in Assam, Tripura and West Bengal.
