Three Bangladeshi nationals were arrested in two separate drives in India’s Haryana and Hyderabad states on Friday, Indian news agency IANS reports.

A 24-year-old Bangladeshi, involved in many crimes in Gurgaon of Haryana state, was arrested with a locally made pistol, the report says quoting a police on Friday.

Pravez Mohammad alias Pravesh was arrested by the crime branch unit led by Shyam Sunder from Badshahpur area.

“Pravez was arrested by Gurgaon police in April last year for illegally living in India but he managed to escaped from the lockup the next month,” a police officer said.

It says a resident of a village in Bangladesh’s Daulatpur district, Pravez has been involved in many incidents of theft and snatching, the officer said.

In a separate drive, two Bangladeshis among six suspects, including one each from Pakistan and Myanmar, have been arrested in Hyderabad during security checks ahead of Independence Day.

The arrested are Mohammed Nazeer (52), Faisal Mohammed alias Faisal (24), Zainul Abideen alias Mohammed Usman (30), Ziaur Rehman (18), Massod Ali Khan (55) and Suhail Parveez Khan (31).

The suspects were arrested from a house in the old city area on Thursday. The two other arrested are locals, including the house owner.

Police said it was yet to be established whether they were having direct links with any terrorist group. Police denied that they were planning any attacks during Independence Day celebrations.

Joint Commissioner of Police Prabhakar Rao told reporters that the accused were sending job-seekers abroad on fake documents and illegal passports. They had so far sent 15 people abroad.

“They said they were sending people for employment but we suspect that the motive is more than that because of the suspicious activities of Mohammed Nazeer,” he said.

Police were trying to identify the 15 people sent abroad, most of them to Saudi Arabia.

“They may have gone for unlawful activities. They may be recruiting people for terrorist organisations. This is yet to be ascertained and confirmed,” the police officer said.

Nazeer, a Bangladeshi by birth who migrated to Pakistan 30 years ago, had illegally entered India in 2010. He was allegedly in touch with Jabbar, a leader of terror group Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI) in Bangladesh.

The police officer said that on the direction of Jabbar, Nazeer helped Waqas, an accused in the Dilsukhnagar bomb blasts, in crossing the border into Bangladesh in January 2014.

Waqas, an alleged operative of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), was later arrested by the National Investigation Agency.

“This points to the link between HuJI and IM,” the joint commissioner said.