NIA Busts Suspected IMK Terror Module in Raids Across Three States

He has been down with myopathy and is unable to walk without assistance. But that has not deterred him from floating a new Jehadi organisation - Imam Mahmudur Kafila (IMK).

Meet the 31-year-old Jewel Mahmud alias Jewel Ali aka Imam Mahmud Habibullah; the new leader of the Indian Subcontinent-linked outfit of Al-Qaeda- IMK, tasked with expanding its network across Bangladesh and the Indian states of Assam, Tripura and West Bengal.

Al-Qaeda had earlier sought to build a foothold in Bangladesh through the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). The latest addition to that network is the IMK.

Jewel is the outfit’s alleged founder and leader and was initially associated with Islami Chhatra Shibir before joining JMB and was arrested twice, in 2019 and 2020, over alleged involvement in militant activities in Bangladesh.

After securing bail for the second time, he left Natore for Pabna district in Bangladesh where he established a madrasa, settled down and married. It was from there, National Investigation Agency (NIA) sleuths believe, that the new militant outfit began taking shape.

During Tuesday’s lightning NIA operation across 16 locations in Assam, Kerala and West Bengal, four people were arrested in West Bengal, while two others were detained in Assam.

Investigators suspect that all six were members of the outfit’s ‘Purba Akash’ (Eastern Sky) group, allegedly tasked with procuring arms and explosives for carrying out major acts of sabotage.

The emerging picture, therefore, is of a cross-border terror module attempting to convert ideological mobilisation into an operational presence across eastern and northeastern India.

The raids began in the early hours of Tuesday.

In South Dinajpur’s Kushkari Mundeha village, NIA investigators, accompanied by personnel from Banshihari police station, searched the house of around 30-year-old Mujibur Rahman.

Rahman gave the cops a slip; investigators, however, seized several documents during the search besides his mobile. His name had surfaced during the interrogation of suspected members of IMK arrested in Assam and Tripura in December 2025

The earlier arrests followed an Assam Police Special Task Force operation in Barpeta and Chirang in Assam and Tripura, in which 11 alleged active members of Imam Mahmud’s Caravan were arrested. Investigators subsequently began looking for Mujibur.

Network in Other Districts

The focus thereafter shifted to East Burdwan, where an NIA team, accompanied by Mangalkot police, arrested Piar Mahammad, an imam. A mobile phone and a diary were reportedly seized from his room.

Investigators are examining entries in the diary, including several telephone numbers and contact details reportedly belonging to people in Bangladesh. The immediate question before the NIA and state police is whether these contacts represent ordinary cross-border communication or point towards a wider clandestine network, including a possible sleeper cell.

Another arrest was made in South 24 Parganas.

NIA personnel first reached Balarampur village while searching for Shahrul Purkayet. His wife reportedly told investigators that he had gone to a relative’s house in Kulpi, from where he was subsequently arrested. The agency also searched the residence of Jumman Sheikh, a tailor from Mithapukur in Budge Budge.

According to investigative sources, the names of these suspects emerged from encrypted communications allegedly recovered from mobile phones seized from the IMK suspects arrested in Assam.

The NIA is now examining whether the communications reveal an organised network extending across several states.

The agency has already conducted searches in at least 10 locations in Assam and one in Kerala, besides multiple locations in West Bengal.

The larger investigation has brought renewed attention to Imam Mahmud’s Caravan (IMC), an organisation described by NIA as operating along an Al-Qaeda-inspired ideological line.

Jewel Ali, the History-Sheeter

According to the probe, Jewel Ali, associated with the JMB, helped establish the new outfit, which subsequently sought to expand its presence in Bangladesh as well as in Assam, Tripura and West Bengal, where investigators have previously detected JMB-linked sleeper networks.

IMK, sleuths further allege, established an arms-training camp in the hilly areas of Bangladesh’s Moulvibazar and that at least two of the suspects arrested in Assam had travelled to Bangladesh to meet members of the organisation.

The Bangladesh angle adds another layer to the investigation. Some alleged members of the network were reportedly detained by Bangladeshi authorities before the July 2023 uprising. Several prisoners, including Jewel Ali, were subsequently released following the revolt.

For the NIA, the immediate task is therefore not merely to establish individual links but to determine whether those links form part of a clandestine cross-border terror infrastructure currently in operation.

The searches are continuing, and investigators are examining documents, phones, encrypted communications and financial or logistical connections. The larger probe is intended to establish the extent, structure and operational reach of the suspected module.