NIA, BSF, ATF sleuths converge in Kolkata to grill Bangladeshi terrorists

Two suspected Bangladeshi terrorists along with an Indian arms dealer were recently arrested by the Kolkata Police.

Kolkata: Sleuths from the National Investigation Agency, Hyderabad Anti-Terrorism Squad and BSF Intelligence unit today grilled Ansarullah Bangla Team terrorists along with an Indian arms dealer, who was recently arrested by the Kolkata Police.

According to the police, the two are "hardcore" terrorists and have not opened up at all, despite day-long grilling.

"Officers from the NIA, ATS and BSF's intelligence unit today interrogated the two terrorists and the arms dealer whom we had arrested on Tuesday," a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.

The ATS unit from Hyderabad grilled the two terrorists -- Samsad Mia alias Tanvir Saiful and Rizaul Islam -- to ascertain why they visited the south Indian city.

"The officers of the Hyderabad ATS are trying to find out what actual connection they had with the city and what they had done or with whom they had met during their visit there," the officer said.

Elaborating on their investigation into the matter, another officer described the terrorists as "hardcore" and "tough nuts to crack".

"They are quite hardcore and are not speaking during the grilling sessions. We have to follow strategies to make them speak," he said.

According to a Kolkata Police source, both terrorists had rejected the arms brought in by arms dealer Manotosh Dey during their meeting at the Kolkata Railway Station on Tuesday.

"They were looking for more sophisticated arms and had rejected the arms Monotosh had bought at the Kolkata station on Tuesday. The duo had asked Monotosh for rifles of the AK series," the officer said.

During the probe, it surfaced that Monotosh had been involved in arms smuggling for years and was arrested earlier this year after a huge cache of arms was seized from his possession, the Kolkata Police official said.

Further probe revealed that Monotosh's father worked with a rifle factory at Ichhapur in North 24 Parganas district. The sleuths were trying to find out whether he had any "links" to the unit or not.

"Monotosh has a long history in arms dealing. We need to check how he got in touch with terrorist outfits and what kind of role he had been playing apart from supplying arms and ammunition," the officer said.

On Tuesday, the Special Task Force (STF) unit of Kolkata Police had arrested the two belonging to the banned Bangladeshi terror outfit along with Monotosh and seized several fake documents and arms from them.