The three accused had been smuggling Indian SIM cards to Pakistan via Bangladesh. They were also found running a fake currency racket.

Special Task Force (STF) of West Bengal Police on Saturday (August 15, 2026) arrested three people from Coochbehar’s Sahebganj for suspected association with the Pakistan-based intelligence unit, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The development comes only three days after the STF also held two people including a Pakistani national Rana Rauf from North 24 Parganas’s Bongaon for allegedly spying on the Indian Railway Services and Indian Army on behalf of ISI since 2012. Meanwhile, the Bengaluru Police in Karnataka also arrested another resident of North 24 Parganas, Asaful Mallick, for allegedly planning to undergo terrorist training by the Afghanistan-based terrorist outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and target the Pakistan Army.

According to the officials, the three accused had been identified as Rashidul and Nasiruddin, residents of Sahebganj under Coochbehar’s Dinhata II block, and Safikul, a resident of Bihar’s Kishanganj.

“Acting on an internal tip-off, the STF team conducted a search operation at their places in Sahebganj on Saturday wee hours, We have also seized some Indian SIM cards from the accused. Prima facie, they used to smuggle those SIM cards to Pakistan through Bangladesh. They have also been running a counterfeit Indian currency racket for the last few years,” said the Police Superintendent of STF (North Bengal), Y. Raghuvamshi.

Police also produced them before a Dinhata court on Saturday (August 15) that granted the accused 14-day police custody. The STF are now interrogating them to trace their other associates and their communication channels with ISI.

The officer said that it is yet not clear how long they have been involved in this business and how they got in touch with the ISI people. “So far, this is a standalone case. We did not find any link of these three with other suspected ISI agents who have been arrested from other parts of the state earlier. But it will also take some time for us to confirm how long they have been active. We also have suspicion over one of the three accused that he could be a Pakistani national. Further probe is underway,” said Mr. Raghuvamshi.