The Special Task Force (STF) of West Bengal Police has disclosed that Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) had planned to sabotage a protest rally organised by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, according to revelations emerging from the arrest and interrogation of two suspects within the past 24 hours. The disclosure marks a significant counter-terrorism development linking a Pakistan-based terror outfit to a planned disruption of a public political event on Indian soil.

The Arrests

The STF arrested suspected JeM associate Hamim Mondal from Burdwan in East Burdwan district of West Bengal on Friday, and his aide Arpita Sarkar from Sahibganj in neighbouring Jharkhand. Both were subsequently produced before a lower court in Kolkata on Saturday, with Sarkar remanded to 14 days of STF custody. Hamim had earlier been remanded to the same duration of custody on Friday.

The Plot: Police Uniforms and Crowd Infiltration

STF Inspector General Gaurav Sharma told reporters that the plan involved procuring police uniforms so that operatives could blend into the crowd at the Jantar Mantar rally while posing as law enforcement personnel, with the intent of triggering chaos. “There were plans to procure police uniforms for this purpose, so that they could mix with the crowd posing as cops and thus create chaos. However, it is not clear whether Hamim or Sarkar went to Jantar Mantar or not, or whether they were ultimately successful in procuring police uniforms,” Sharma said.

Sharma also confirmed that some police officers and other politicians were among the targets of Hamim and his associates. It was revealed immediately after Hamim’s arrest that West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and his cabinet colleague Umesh Rai were also named as targets of JeM.

Pakistani Handlers and Social Media Network

According to police sources, interrogation of Hamim led investigators to several social media handles — identified as ‘Rana’, ‘Uzair’, ‘Abid Jat333’, and ‘Hamad’ — all of which are believed to belong to Pakistani handlers. Officials said these handles were suspected to be linked to the criminal network of Pakistani gangster Shahzad Bhatti, and were used to spread fundamentalist propaganda and radicalise youth.

Hamim reportedly contacted these handles over the past two to three months, initially through Instagram, and later via WhatsApp and Telegram. Officials confirmed that Hamim was reached from Pakistan through encrypted communications, and that the Pakistani handles reportedly used SIM cards from Britain and Mexico to obscure their tracks.

How the Trail Led to Sarkar

Sharma explained that the investigation began after intelligence surfaced about a plan to honeytrap a senior politician in Howrah and kidnap his son. “Based on that, suspicion fell on a social media handle in Sahibganj. The handle belonged to Arpita Sarkar,” he said. STF sleuths then traced Sarkar’s social media activity to Hamim, who had been in contact with her for the past four years — first connecting on social media before meeting in person. “It was revealed Hamim had tried to spread the network using Arpita,” Sharma added.

What Comes Next

Both suspects remain in STF custody as investigators continue to map the full extent of the network. The case points to a cross-border radicalisation pipeline using encrypted platforms and foreign SIM cards, raising broader questions about digital surveillance gaps. Security agencies are expected to pursue further leads from the Pakistani social media handles identified during interrogation.