Global jihadi network Al-Qaeda’s alleged operative, Samiun Rahman, was arrested from east Delhi’s Vikas Marg, Shakarpur, by the Delhi Police’s special cell on 17 September evening, as per media reports. Rahman had allegedly been active with the group since 2013 and had been to South Africa and Syria, Deputy Commissioner of Police (special cell) P Kushwaha told ANI.
Four cartridges, laptops, phones, Bangladeshi currency, and a Bangladesh sim card were confiscated from the alleged militant.
Rahman’s “radicalisation” and his alleged links with Al-Qaeda began in a London prison where he was lodged on charges of rash driving in 2011-12, claimed investigators, as per a PTI report.
An officer, privy to the probe, was quoted in the PTI report as saying:
While he was lodged in a jail there (London) for close to eight months, he (Samiun Rahman) came in contact with some people, and that was where his indoctrination started.
Rahman alias Raju Bhai, a British national of Bangladeshi origin, is trained in using sophisticated weapons and has allegedly fought against the Syrian forces on behalf of Jabhat Al Nusra, a Syria-based Al-Qaeda associate, reported PTI.
The investigators described the 27-year-old suspected militant as a “trained solider fighting for a wrong cause”.
Reports claims that Rahman's father, who had moved from Bangladesh to London in the 1960s and had set up his business there, lives with his family in opulent central London. Rahman’s siblings are also settled in London. Police stated that one of his brothers is in the banking sector while his three sisters are associated with banks and social work.
In 2013, Rahman travelled to Mauritania in west Africa to “gain knowledge about religion,” the police said, adding that it is suspected that he was radicalised there.
Mauritania is the stronghold of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a Salafi-jihadist militant group. After his “radicalisation”, Rahman was sent to Atmeh, Syria, where he was trained in using weapons, including AK-47s, and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) for nearly three months.
According to the police, Rahman reached Bangladesh in 2014 to radicalise youth to join the Al-Qaeda with the help of one Yasina, a resident of Bangladesh, and an old Al-Qaeda cadre, reported PTI.
Rahman visited Dhaka and other places and radicalised dozens of young people in Bangladesh for their entry into Myanmar from Chittagong.
He came in contact with two youths – Tanzeel, the son of a bureaucrat, and Adnan, the son of a former High Court judge. Before Rahman could radicalise more youths, he was arrested in September 2014 in Bangladesh on charges of financing terror outfits and recruiting for the same.
Rahman, who was imprisoned till April this year, came in contact with members of other terror outfits, including Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, during his jail term, an investigator told PTI. After he was released on bail in April, he was asked to travel to India since the Bangladeshi authorities were already hot on his heels.
Rahman entered India illegally in April and was directed by Al-Qaeda leaders to start seeking out Rohingya Muslims to “radicalise” and train them to fight against the Myanmarese Army, an investigator told PTI.
During this period, he stayed at various madrasas in Kishanganj (Bihar), Hazari Bagh (Jharkhand), and NCR, among others. He had plans to set up bases in Mizoram or Manipur to train radicalised youths.
Police also suspect that he was in touch with some militant organisations in Kashmir but no clues which can help investigators trace Rahman’s links to India have been found yet.
A tech-savvy person, Rahman was in touch with top leaders of Al-Qaeda, and the head of Al-Nusrah Front, namely, Muhammad al-Jawlani, through secure messaging apps like Telegram, the investigator said.
Police are currently questioning Rahman on whether he has been successful in radicalising any Rohingya Muslims in India, and trying to find out the number of times he has visited Delhi.
(With inputs from PTI)
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