3 students with links to Kashmir terror groups arrested in Punjab

In a joint operation, the Punjab Police and the Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police Wednesday arrested three students and busted a module of Kashmiri terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) in Jalandhar.

The students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar, Director General of Police Suresh Arora said in a statement issued here.

The joint team, which conducted a raid at the hostel early this morning, also seized two weapons, including an Assault Rifle, and explosives from the hostel room of B.Tech (Civil) student of second semester, Zahid Gulzar, resident of Rajpora, PS Awantipora, Srinagar (J-K).

Zahid was arrested along with Mohd. Idriss Shah alias Nadeem, resident of Pulwama Jammu and Kashmir, and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, resident of Noorpura, Pulwama J-K.

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

A case has been registered in PS Sadar Jalandhar in this regard.

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

He said the busting of the terror module belonging to AGH, and the seizure of weapons in Jalandhar, was indicative of efforts by Pakistan's ISI to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border.

It may be mentioned that Gazi Ahmad Malik, resident of Shopian, J-K, was recently picked-up by the Punjab Police from Banur, Patiala, (where he was studying in Aryans Group Polytechnic College).

It was learnt that Gazi was closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a J-K Police special police officers who had fled with seven Rifles from the residence of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA in Srinagar and was suspected to have joined Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant group, he said.

He was later handed over to the J-K Police for further investigations.