Eight persons with alleged links to Pakistan, Bangladesh terror outfits arrested from Bengal, Tamil Nadu

A special cell of the Delhi Police has arrested eight persons with alleged links with Pakistan- and Bangladesh-based terror organisations, the police said on Sunday (February 22, 2026). One of them was identified to be from West Bengal and the rest as Bangladesh nationals. This comes just after security agencies issued an alert on Saturday (February 21) on a possible explosion near the Red Fort and security was beefed up around heritage and religious sites across the city.

“On February 7, some miscreants had affixed some objectionable posters at various metro stations across Delhi. The metro police immediately identified the miscreants and the routes they took for leaving the city. The case was formally transferred to the special cell on February 13. They were tracked down to Kolkata in West Bengal by a team of the special cell. Two persons, namely Umar Farukh and Robiul Islam, were arrested,” said Pramod Singh Kushwaha, Additional Commissioner of Police of the special cell. Farukh was identified to be from Malda in West Bengal and Robiul as a Bangladesh national.

These two had affixed posters in Delhi previously too, the officer added. According to the police, they were operating on the commands of a former terror handler, Shabbir Ahmad Lone, now based in Bangladesh. He had been arrested in 2007 and had connections with Lashkar-e-Taiba. Upon release from prison in 2019, he had recommenced his terrorist activities and established contact with the Lashkar, the police said.

Umar Farukh had allegedly been in touch with Shabbir Ahmad and had also travelled to Bangladesh to meet him. The police said that he had recruited six other Bangladesh nationals working in Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu and had conducted dry runs of pasting these posters across various cities in the country, including Delhi and Kolkata, on the commands of Shabbir.

“Those arrested are said to be Bangladesh nationals and had been working in garment factories in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal,” the police said.

Umar and Rabiul had been staying at an expensive house in Kolkata, which was said to be their hide-out. Interrogations revealed that they had planned to take the men working in Tamil Nadu to Kolkata and engage them in terror activities, the special cell said.

The phones recovered from the eight arrestedrevealed that they had done reconnaissance of different cities and had been planning a major terror activity in heavy footfall and sensitive areas, Mr. Kushwaha said.