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Updated: Jul 31, 2019 13:32 IST

Police in Barpeta district of Assam have nabbed three cadres of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a terror outfit based in the neighbouring country, weeks ahead of Independence Day.

Based on specific information, Hafizur Rahman, Yakub Ali and Shariful Islam, were arrested by the police on Tuesday.

“Till now we have arrested three JMB cadres. We had been keeping track of JMB activities in the area for some time and since Independence Day was near, we had increased surveillance which led to the arrests,” Barpeta superintendent of police Robin Kumar said while speaking to journalists.

Hafizur Rahman was the first to be arrested and a country-made revolver and four live rounds were found in his possession. The other two, Yakub Ali and Shariful Islam, were nabbed based on Rahman’s information.

According to the police, based on interrogation of the arrested cadres, who had set up a module of JMB in Assam, more arrests could take place in coming days.

The arrested JMB men had received arms training in 2014 at Nalbari and Barpeta districts of Assam from Shakil Ahmed, a hardcore JMB operative from Bangladesh, who had entered India specifically for that purpose. Ahmed was killed in a blast inside a rented house in West Bengal’s Burdwan in October 2014.

Police said Hafizur Rahman, who had studied at a madarsa in Barpeta, travelled to Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Kerala several times and was instrumental in recruiting and training JMB cadres in Assam.

Rahman hails from Karagarhi village in Barpeta. Abdul Matin, a JMB operative arrested in February this year from Kerala, also belongs to the same village.

All the three JMB cadres were produced before a court on Tuesday evening and have been remanded to three days police custody.