Valley students’ terror link: NIA to probe Jalandhar case

CHANDIGARH: The central and Punjab governments have decided to hand over the investigations into the case involving the arrest of three Kashmiri students associated with Ansar Ghazwat-ul-hind (AGH) to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The three students were arrested last month in an operation by Punjab Police.

CHANDIGARH: The central and Punjab governments have decided to hand over the investigations into the case involving the arrest of three Kashmiri students associated with Ansar Ghazwat-ul-hind (AGH) to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The three students were arrested last month in a joint operation by Punjab Police and special operations group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, Jalandhar.

Two weapons, including an assault rifle, and explosives were recovered from them.

The decision to hand over the case to the NIA was taken after discussions between the Punjab government and the Union ministry of home affairs, said director general of police Suresh Arora.

Initial investigations had revealed that the students, identified as Zahid Gulzar, Mohd Idriss Shah and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, arrested on October 11, were associated with Ansar Ghazwat-ul-hind (AGH), a Kashmir-based terrorist outfit with reported links to Jaish-emohammed (JEM). The outfit is headed by Zakir Rashid Bhatt@ Zakir Mussa.

Punjab Police will, however, continue to probe the Maqsuudan blast case in which two Kashmiri students were arrested.