The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested 13 people in connection with a subversive conspiracy by an offshoot of the Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned terrorist group.
The NIA’s investigation revealed the involvement of the accused in an IMK conspiracy to spread the terror outfit’s ideology in West Bengal and the northeastern States. The anti-terror agency determined that a senior member of the JMB, Imam Mahmud Habibullah, established the IMK to promote the banned outfit’s agenda on Indian soil. The NIA also discovered that the accused conspired to expand the influence of IMK and JMB in India through clandestine meetings, religious indoctrination programmes, circulation of extremist literature, and use of digital platforms for anti-India propaganda. Two children died and another person was injured in the attack. Haokip is the second person after S. Palal Thadou Kuki to be arrested in the case. The incident happened near K. Sinam village in Kangpokpi district.
The suspects were arrested during searches at 16 locations in Assam, Kerala and West Bengal, the agency said on Tuesday (September 29, 2026). Of the 13 accused, eight were from Assam, four from West Bengal, and one from Kerala. The NIA has arrested Thangmang Haokip, 48, of Manipur’s Churachandpur district, in a case relating to the IED attack on a home in Tronglaobi Awang Leikai at Moirang in Bishnupur district on April 7. The latter, arrested on August 12, is in judicial custody. The NIA also arrested Jangminlun Singson, 44, and Thangjoel Haokip, 21, of Churachandpur district for involvement in an ambush on the convoy of Manipur’s former Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh on June 10, 2024.
“The conspiracy involved promotion of the terrorist organisation’s extremist agenda, radicalisation of vulnerable youth, and expansion of the outfit’s network in India,” the agency said in a statement. “Ten accused in the case—nine Bangladeshi nationals and one Indian—remain absconding,” the NIA said.
Two other accused in the case were arrested earlier.
The NIA produced Haokip before the Special NIA Court-II in Imphal after arresting him on September 25. The court remanded him to 12-days of police custody.
