Kolkata, Sep 14 (IANS): Kolkata Police said on Wednesday that the sleuths of its special task force (STF) have arrested a resident of Malda district, who was an active associate of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (QQIS), from Bengaluru on Tuesday night.

The name of the arrested person is Hasnath Sheikh alias Sahid Majumdar. This is the sixth AQIS member to be arrested by the Kolkata Police STF in little less than two months.

It is learnt that another AQIS member named Faizal Ahmed alias Shahid Majumdar was arrested from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh on September 11. Originally a resident of Bangladesh, Ahmed was in the most-wanted list of both Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police for a long time. From Ahmed, the STF sleuths came to know about Hasnath Sheikh's hideout in Bengaluru.

"Both were responsible for brainwashing and making fresh recruits for AQIS's sleeper cells," a city police official confirmed.

Earlier, on September 3, the STF, in coordination with the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra Police, had arrested two residents of Bengal with alleged AQIS links from Mumbai. The arrested persons -- Samir Hossain and Saddam Hossain -- are residents of Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district. Both were wanted by the STF and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for a long time.

On August 17, the STF sleuths had arrested two AQIS members -- Raqib Sarkar and Kazi Ahshanullah -- from Shashan village under Barasat block in North 24 Parganas district.

Sarkar is a resident of Ganganagar in South 24 Parganas district, while Kazi Ahshanullah hails from Arambagh in Hooghly district. The latter owns a house at Topsia area in Kolkata.