NIA arrests Madrassa teacher from Kedarnagar for involvement in anti-national activities

|HT|

A Madrassa teacher was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday from Kedarnagar area near Dhaka in Sikarahana sub-division of East Champaran for his alleged involvement in anti-national activities. Confirming this, East Champaran’s superintendent of police (SP), Dr Kumar Ashish on Wednesday said the teacher, identified as Ali Asghar (in 30s), who was attached with Jamiya Maria Nishwan Madarasa at Kedarnagar, was wanted in an old terror case which occurred at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

“A joint team from Lucknow, Bhopal and Delhi arrested the alleged accused,” said the superintendent of police. Sikarahana’s sub divisional magistrate (SDM), Iftekhar Ahmad said simultaneous raids were carried out after the necessary reinforcements were made available and picked up a few people for interrogation after 5pm on Tuesday.

“While all of them were let off, they went back with one Madrassa teacher around midnight,” said the SDM. However, sources quoting eyewitnesses said after reaching the Madrassa, the NIA team reportedly spotted Asghar Ali among other teachers and subjected him and two others to interrogation which lasted for about five hours after which Ali was arrested and his laptop was seized from his room. The room in which Asghar lived in the mosque is said to have been allocated in the name of the imam of the mosque, Maulana Nesar Ahmed.

A resident of Sishwaniya, Ali, after studying in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, pursued his higher education Maulvi (intermediate) in Bhopal, where he allegedly came in contact with an organisation called Jamaat ud Mujahideen of Bangladesh, known for anti-India activities.

Ali has been working as a Madrassa teacher for the past two years at Jamia Maria Nishwan Madrassa.

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