Jalandhar: 3 students arrested over links with terror outfit

The Punjab Police on Wednesday arrested three students of an engineering college in Jalandhar in connection with alleged links with Kashmiri terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH).

The state police conducted an operation along with the Special Operations Group (SoG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police to bust the terror module. The students were nabbed from their college hostel in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar.

A raid was conducted in the hostel early this morning and two weapons including an assault rifle and explosives were seized. The students have been identified as Zahid Gulzar, Mohammed Idriss Shah and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt. They were second-semester students of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology.

Director General of Police Suresh Arora in a statement said, "The arrests happened following the development and corroboration of various leads/inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organizations/individuals operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab."

A case has been registered in the Sadar Police Station of Jalandhar under sections 121, 121- A and 121- B of the Indian Penal code, sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act, sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Explosive Act and under sections 10, 13, 17, 18, 18-B, 20, 38, 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Prevention Act.

"Further investigation is in progress. The Punjab Police and the Jammu and Kashmir Police are working together to unravel the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir," added the DGP.

He said that the incidents were indicative of the efforts of Pakistan's intelligence, ISI, to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border.

The Punjab Police also apprehended a polytechnic student, Gazi Ahmad Malik, a resident of Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir from Banur, Patiala on the charges of being closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh.

Shiekh, a Jammu and Kashmir Police SPO (Special Police Officer), fled with seven Rifles from the residence of Peoples Democratic Party MLA house in Srinagar.