A 21-year-old man from Assam’s Hailakandi district was arrested on Wednesday for his alleged links with the Pakistan-based Shahzad Bhatti Network (SBN), police said.
On Wednesday, the STF posted on X, “Following leads from earlier arrests in (STF PS Case No. The Assam police’s Special Task Force (STF), in a joint operation with Hailakandi district police, arrested Fazal Islam Barbhuiyan from the Ramnathpur area. On July 25, the STF arrested three men: Akramul Islam (26) of Dhubri, Aminur Rahman (22) of Chirang, and Abdul Hussain (54) of Barpeta. 06/2026) STF, Assam, jointly with Hailakandi District Police, apprehended Fazal Islam Barbhuiyan (21), an alleged operative of the Pakistan-based Shahzad Bhatti Network (SBN), from Ramnathpur, Hailakandi, in the early hours of 26 August 2026.
Their mobile phones, Aadhaar cards, bank passbooks, and a large amount of tampered religious scripts were seized, officials said. The superintendent of police (SP), STF, Pranab Kumar Pegu said the accused’s name came up during interrogations in the July case, and police kept a vigil on him and his actions.
The investigation into the network began with an arrest in Nalbari in May during an operation based on intelligence inputs about alleged links between local residents and the Pakistan-based network.
“We cannot share many details for the sake of investigation, but we found incriminating documents from him and his mobile phone records suggest he was in contact with terrorist groups through various social media platforms, including Instagram,” Pegu told HT.
