Silchar/Kolkata, Sept. 30 -- The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested 13 people from Assam, West Bengal and Keralam and conducted searches at 16 locations across the three states as part of an investigation into an alleged cross-border terror conspiracy and radicalisation network, police said. While four people were arrested from West Bengal, eight were intercepted in Assam and one was held from Keralam. "Raids were conducted in 16 locations in the three states, including five in West Bengal. In all 13 people were arrested. The accused were held for their alleged links with the IMK," said a NIA official. According to police, the searches were conducted in connection with a probe into Imam Mahmuder Kafila (IMK), which investigators have described as an offshoot of the banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). NIA teams searched the residences of some of those arrested, while police said several other premises were also searched as part of the operation. The Union government banned the JMB and all its manifestations under section 35 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 in May 2019. People familiar with the matter said that Assam Police had arrested 11 people from various districts in Assam, West Bengal and Tripura in December 2025. A case was registered against 35 people for their alleged involvement in an online radicalisation module operated by Bangladesh-based handlers of the IMK through a Telegram group 'Purva Akash'. The 11 accused were charge-sheeted and are now in custody. The charge sheet was filed before the NIA Special Court in Guwahati under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967, the agency said in June. Later the NIA took over the probe. Investigation by the agency revealed that the accused were trying to expand the IMK's ideology in West Bengal and north-eastern states. "Investigations revealed that the accused were trying to expand the JMB's and IMK's network in West Bengal and other north eastern states through religious indoctrination, extremist literature and use of digital platforms. Mobile phones, pen-drives, and memory cards were seized from them," said an official. At least 10 accused, including nine Bangladeshis are still absconding....