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Police described the detainees as “jihadist elements” acting on instructions from Bangladesh-based groups and accused them of seeking to establish ‘Muslim supremacy’ India’s northeast.

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Police in Assam and Tripura have arrested 11 people for suspected links to banned extremist groups based in Bangladesh, authorities said on Tuesday, Scroll.in reported.

Ten of the arrests were made across four districts of Assam during a coordinated overnight operation by the Assam Police’s Special Task Force, while one person was detained in Tripura, Guwahati Police Commissioner Partha Sarathi Mahanta said.

The suspects have been charged under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, India’s main anti-terror law, police said.

Mahanta said investigators believe the arrested individuals were associated with Imam Mahmuder Kafil, an organisation formed in 2018 by a former member of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a militant group outlawed by India’s federal government in 2019.

The Interior Ministry banned JMB and its Indian affiliates for allegedly promoting terrorism.

Mahanta described the detainees as “jihadist elements” acting on instructions from Bangladesh-based groups and accused them of seeking to undermine stability in India’s northeast.

“They wanted to establish ‘Muslim supremacy’ in this part of the country,” he said, according to PTI.

Security officials allege that leaders of extremist groups, including JMB and al Qaeda, helped revive and expand the Imam Mahmuder Kafil network in India following a change of government in Bangladesh in August 2024, The Hindu newspaper reported.

“The activities are coordinated through secure social media platforms,” the newspaper quoted from a dossier on the group. “One of these, Purva Akash, functions as the principal platform to radicalise, recruit, and finance people in Assam, Tripura and West Bengal.”

Police also claim that some members travelled to Bangladesh for training using valid travel documents, and that meetings between India-based operatives and handlers took place in the neighbouring state of Meghalaya.

Investigators have traced alleged financial links involving digital payments and hawala transactions between members operating in India and Bangladesh, police said.