Hizbul operative in Assam sentenced to 5 years imprisonment by NIA Court

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court Guwahati on Tuesday convicted another accused in a conspiracy case related to the formation of a Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) module, a banned terrorist organisation, informed officials.

The accused, Md Saidul Alam of district Hojai, Assam, has been sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine.

“Five people were chargesheeted by the NIA on March 11, 2019, and two of them, identified as Md. Sahnawaj Alom and Md. Omar Faruque was convicted by the NIA Court on December 23, 2022,” read an official release from NIA.

The case was originally registered at P.S. Jamunamukh, District Hojai, Assam under various sections of the IPC and UA(P) Act. The NIA re-registered the case on October 5, 2018.

NIA investigations revealed that the three convicted accused had conspired with one Kamruj Zaman to establish a Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) module in Assam.

“During 2017-2018, they organised a series of meetings in various mosques, such as Milonpur Masjid, Islampur Masjid and Solmari Masjid, in and around the Jamunamukh area. The meetings were used to spread the banned outfit’s hardcore fundamentalist ideology, with speeches about alleged atrocities and Jihad. Youth attending these meetings were told about the need to raise a module of HM for committing terrorist acts in response to the alleged atrocities etc,” read an official release.

According to officials, Kamruj, Shahnawaz and Omar conspired to raise funds for the procurement of arms and ammunition.

“Omar, alongwith another accused Jaynal Uddin, provided logistic support. To keep their communications a secret, Kamruj Zaman and Saidul Alam had also installed the Blackberry messenger (BBM) App on their mobile sets. Kamruj had used this app to stay in touch with Hizbul Mujahideen cadres in Jammu and Kashmir,” it read.

Further investigations revealed that Saidul, alongwith Kamruj, Sahnawaz and Omar, had also conspired to unleash bomb blasts and armed attacks on innocent civilians in the non-Muslim localities of Lumding and Hojai on Dussehra eve. They had also planned to procure arms and ammunition for these attacks.