Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested two suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists from Deoband in Saharanpur district, director general of police O.P. Singh said Friday.
In a night-long operation on Thursday, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) nabbed the two men — Shahnawaz Ahmad Teli, a bomb expert from Kulgam, and Aquib Ahmed Malik from Pulwama. Police also recovered .32 bore pistols, two weapons and live bullets in the raids.
UP DGP OP Singh: Yesterday after inputs two suspected terrorists were caught from Saharanpur by our ATS wing. They are linked to JeM and both are from Kashmir. Shahnawaz is from Kulgam and Aqib is from Pulwama pic.twitter.com/ENRuf34bgz
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 22, 2019
Singh said the ATS had received information a few days ago about the suspected terrorists posing as students and living in Deoband.
“Some suspected terrorists have been living in Deoband areas as students. Through electronic surveillance, we kept an eye on them. Our suspicions became strong and our teams were working there. Yesterday night, IG (inspector general) ATS was sent there and in a night operation we nabbed two suspected terrorists who have links to Jaish-e-Mohammed,” said Singh.
The men, aged between 20 to 25 years, are believed to be recruiters for the terrorist group. Police also found evidence of jihadi propaganda in the form of chats, videos and photographs.
“Shahnawaz is associated with Jaish-e-Mohammed and is its active member. He had been given the task to go to Saharanpur to recruit new terrorists to JeM. Similarly, Malik was also there without any admission (at an educational institute) and under this cover, he was preparing some framework for JeM,” Singh said.
As to whether the suspects were involved in the 14 February Pulwama terror attack, Singh said they are still investigating the matter. Police are trying to determine when the men came to Deoband, how many people they recruited, who was funding them and who was their target, he added.
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