West Bengal STF arrests three in Coochbehar for alleged ISI links, SIM smuggling

The Special Task Force (STF) of West Bengal Police on Saturday (August 15, 2026) arrested three people from Coochbehar's Sahebganj area on suspicion of having links with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The accused have been identified as Rashidul and Nasiruddin, residents of Sahebganj under Dinhata II block, and Safikul, a resident of Bihar's Kishanganj.

According to police, the arrests were made based on an internal tip-off. A search operation was conducted at their residences in the early hours of Saturday. During the search, several Indian SIM cards were seized. Police said that prima facie, the accused were involved in smuggling Indian SIM cards to Pakistan via Bangladesh. They were also allegedly running a counterfeit Indian currency racket for the last few years.

Superintendent of Police (STF, North Bengal) Y. Raghuvamshi said, “Acting on an internal tip-off, the STF team conducted a search operation at their places in Sahebganj on Saturday wee hours. We have also seized some Indian SIM cards from the accused. Prima facie, they used to smuggle those SIM cards to Pakistan through Bangladesh. They have also been running a counterfeit Indian currency racket for the last few years.”

The three accused were produced before a Dinhata court on Saturday, which granted them 14-day police custody. The STF is now interrogating them to trace their other associates and their communication channels with the ISI.

The officer said that it is not yet clear how long they have been involved in this business and how they got in touch with ISI operatives. “So far, this is a standalone case. We did not find any link of these three with other suspected ISI agents who have been arrested from other parts of the state earlier. But it will also take some time for us to confirm how long they have been active. We also have suspicion over one of the three accused that he could be a Pakistani national. Further probe is underway,” Mr. Raghuvamshi said.

The arrests come just three days after the STF held two people, including a Pakistani national identified as Rana Rauf, from North 24 Parganas's Bongaon for allegedly spying on the Indian Railway Services and the Indian Army on behalf of the ISI since 2012. In a separate development, Bengaluru Police in Karnataka arrested another resident of North 24 Parganas, Asaful Mallick, for allegedly planning to undergo terrorist training with the Afghanistan-based outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and target the Pakistan Army.

These recent arrests highlight the ongoing efforts by security agencies to counter espionage and illegal activities linked to foreign intelligence networks. The STF has been working on multiple fronts to identify and dismantle such modules operating in the region.

Further investigation is underway to ascertain the full extent of the accused's activities, their duration of involvement, and any possible connections to larger networks. Police have not ruled out the possibility of more arrests as the interrogation progresses.