Imphal, August 19: In a sensational development, at least 15 suspected Al Qaeda activists have been rounded up from Moreh on the Indo-Myanmar border by personnel of 24 Assam Rifles on August 17 at about 3.15 am.

Speaking to The Sangai Express a highly placed source said that the suspected Al Qaeda operatives were arrested from a house located at Moreh Ward number 3, Old Post Office line.

The spokesman of Assam Rifles, Colonel LM Pant however said that his office has not received any official inputs on the matter.

Commanding officer of the 24 Assam Rifles, based at Moreh, Colonel Vikash Saini refused to pass any comments when contacted by The Sangai Express today evening.

However a source close to the Defence establishment at New Delhi, when contacted by The Sangai Express today evening, confirmed the report of the arrest of Al Qaeda operatives at the border town but did not give any details.

The 24 Assam Rifles unit based at Moreh functions under the IGAR (South).

Efforts to contact the IG AR, Major General BK Chengappa personally drew blank as he was reportedly engaged in an important meeting when his office was called up this evening.

Colonel GS who received the phone call on behalf of the IG however said that the 15 arrested men are all Myanmarese Muslims.

The officer said that they will be handed over to the police tomorrow.

The Colonel said that no links with the Al Qaeda have been established so far and added that they were picked up in the first place because they are foreigners who had entered Indian territory.

To queries, the Colonel said that no significant documents have been recovered from them other than some work permits.

One of the 15 had documents from Thailand, he said and added that they are being interrogated intensively.

The source said that the of the 15 arrested, 10 are from the Arakan region on the Bangladesh-Myanmar region, while the other five are from Bangladesh.

During interrogation, 5/6 of the arrested persons are reported to have admitted that they are Al Qaeda operatives.

All the arrested were brought to Imphal the following day on August 18.The fifteen suspected Al Qaeda are being interrogated at the highest level, said the source and added that so far they have managed to seize passports, a card issued by a competent authority of the Government of Manipur identifying them as businessmen as another card enabling them to move across the border as traders.

US dollars, the amount of which has not yet been specified were also seized from them, said the source further.

The source informed that some of the detained persons have admitted that they were attached to finance and publicity wings of the global terrorist network, Al Qaeda.

The 6 persons who have admitted that they are Al Qaeda activists have been identified as Md Hussain (40), Md Nasim (50), Md Abdullah (20), Md Rehman (26), Md Zunided (17) and Md Rohit (16).All of them are under close scrutiny.

Significantly three cadres of the Laskar-E-Taiba originally from Manipur were arrested from Delhi some time back.

The official version of the arrest may come after some days.

C-in-C of new outfit held at Silchar : Troops of 57 Mountain Division operating in Cachar area arrested the S/S commander-in-chief of the newly floated outfit, christened United Bengal Revolutionary Army on August 17 at Silchar in Assam, said a statement issued by the PIB (Defence Wing) today evening.

Weapons and incriminating documents were also recovered from his possession said the statement and added that the ultra has been handed over to Silchar police station.

The militant is identified as Sujal Roy alias Sujal Sharma.

The arms recovered included on .22 revolver, one magazine of 9 mm pistol, one Chinese made grenade and six rounds of 9 mm calibre ammunition.

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