Three Kashmiri students held in Punjab with AK, explosives; were planning attacks

In a joint operation, the Punjab Police and Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday busted a terror module in Punjab's Jalandhar city with the arrest of three Kashmiri students linked to Kashmiri terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH).

The police recovered an AK-47 assault rifle and explosives from them.

The module also had links with the Pakistan-based international terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the police said.

Senior Punjab Police officials, who were privy to the interrogation of the arrested Kashmiri students, said the module was planning terrorist activities in Punjab or Delhi during the forthcoming festive season (Dusshera-Diwali),

Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora said in Chandigarh that the students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar city.

The joint team, which conducted a raid at the hostel early on Wednesday morning, also recovered two weapons, including an assault rifle as well as explosives from the hostel room of B. Tech (Civil) Student of second semester Zahid Gulzar of Rajpora.

Zahid was detained along with Mohd Idriss Shah and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, both of Pulwama, a statement from the DGP said.

Briefing the media in Jalandhar on Wednesday, Jalandhar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that the terror module was busted following sharing of intelligence by the Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir Police.

He said that the arrested members of the module were being questioned and further details could not be shared at this stage.

The Punjab Police had recently picked up a student, Gazi Ahmad Malik of Shopian (in Jammu and Kashmir), from Banur in Patiala district where he was studying in Aryans Group Polytechnic College.

Gazi was closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a J&K Special Police Officer (SPO) who had fled with seven rifles from the residence of a PDP MLA in Srinagar and was suspected to have joined the militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.

Gazi was later handed over to J&K Police.

The DGP said the arrests followed the development and corroboration of various leads and inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organisations and individuals operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

A case under sections 121, 121-A and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act and the Explosive Act has been registered, the statement said.

"Further investigations are in progress and the Punjab Police is working closely with J&K Police to unravel the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals in Punjab and J&K," the DGP said.

Arora said the busting of the terror module and the recovery of weapons in Jalandhar was indicative of efforts by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border.

--IANS

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