3 Kashmiri students held with AK-47 in Jalandhar
CHANDIGARH/JALANDHAR/ SRINAGAR : Punjab Police and the special operations group of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday busted a terror module in Jalandhar with the arrest of three Kashmiri students linked to terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-hind (AGH).
The students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar, said director general of police Suresh Arora.
The joint team, which conducted a raid at the hostel early this morning, also seized two weapons, including an AK-47 rifle, and explosives from the hostel room of Btech (civil) 3rd semester student Zahid Gulzar, a resident of Rajpora in Srinagar. The other two accused, Mohammed Idriss Shah alias Nadeem and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, both residents of Pulwama, were also in his room, said Jalandhar police commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar. While Bhatt is also a B Tech student at the same college, Shah is pursuing BSC (medical lab science) at the nearby St Soldier Management College, he added. The trio was living in Jalandhar from the past twothree years and reportedly got involved in terror activities from the last one year, said police.
A case has been registered under sections 121 (waging, or attempting to wage war against the country), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at the Sadar police station. Relevant sections of the arms act and explosives act have also been added, said police.
The DGP said the arrests followed the development and corroboration of various leads/ inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organisations operating in J&K and Punjab. “We are working closely with J-K Police to unravel the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals,” he added.
He said the busting of the terror module belonging to AGH, and the seizure of weapons, was indicative of efforts by Pakistan’s ISI to expand the arc of militancy on India’s western border. The investigation has indicated AGH’S links with Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-emohammed (JEM), police said.
The city, a known education hub, has at least 500 students from J&K at different campuses. The Wednesday’s arrests have left Punjab Police worried. “The trend is worrying. There are a large number of Kashmiri students in the state and their links to terror groups is definitely a cause of concern,” said a senior police official. On April 27, police had arrested two suspected “propakistan” Kashmiri hackers, from Jalandhar and Rajpura. Shahid Malla and Adil Hussain Teli, residents of Baramulla and Anantnag , were pursuing compute courses at private colleges. They were accused of hacking over 500 Indian websites and were in touch with Pakistanbased anti-india hackers.