Five held in Assam, LeT link suspected

Police today arrested five persons, all Muslims, from two different hotels in the Assam capital on suspicion that they had links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba and other fundamentalist and militant organisations.

Of the five persons, police said, three hailed from Bihar and two from Orissa. Interesting, three of them were reported to have paid a visit to the famous shakti peeth of Kamakhya in the heart of the city. While a city court today remanded them to six days of police custody, preliminary interrogation has not led to any direct link between these persons and any militant outfit. They have been booked under Section 41 of the IPC.

The arrested persons have been identified as Asraf Tarapdar, Mohmmed Sahabuddin, Mir Ishak, Md Hasmat Raza and Abdullah Yusuf Ali.

The last person also has Hindu alias 8212; Kanhai Prasad Sinha, police said.

Meanwhile, Tripura police today detained seven more persons, all Muslims, from outside the region on suspicion that they might have some links with militant outfits. edited