Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh’s Anti-Terrorist Squad said Thursday that it had arrested three people — including two Pakistani citizens — for trying to enter India through Nepal. The suspects are linked to the militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen and intended to “carry out terror activities in India”, the agency said.
The ATS has identified the suspects as Mohammed Altaf Bhat from Pakistan’s Rawalpindi, Sayyed Gajanafar from Islamabad, and Nasir Ali from Kashmir’s Kralpora Hawal. It said they were arrested near the Sonauli transit point on the Indo-Nepal border.
According to a statement by the agency, Bhat, originally from Kashmir who had crossed over into Pakistan after the Kargil War of 1999, had received training from Hizbul with assistance from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and had been “directed by ISI operatives to enter India via Nepal”.
Meanwhile, Nasir Ali was tasked with providing the other two with fake Aadhaar cards and was trying to help them into India via Sheikh Farenda village in Uttar Pradesh’s border district of Maharajganj, the ATS said.
The arrests, according to the statement, came following intelligence inputs about the possibility of some Pakistan citizens trained by Hizbul trying to enter India through Nepal to “carry out terror activities”.
The ATS said that during questioning, Gajanafar claimed he was Nasir Ali’s uncle. Bhat, meanwhile, said he “was influenced by reading Hizbul literature and by listening to the speeches of amirs and ustads of other jihadi organisations”, the statement said.
“Altaf got directions from the HM operatives to enter Jammu and Kashmir in India via Nepal and was told that he would be informed about the next plan there,” it said, adding that on the directions of his ISI handlers, Altaf met Nasir, who was in touch with an ISI agent named Saleem via WhatsApp, in Kathmandu.
The three have been booked under Indian Penal Code’s (IPC) sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery of electronic record for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121A (conspiracy to commit war against Government of India), and provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and The Foreigners Act, 1946.
The ATS said that it had recovered two mobile phones, a memory card, seven debit/credit cards, three Aadhaar cards, two flight tickets, a Pakistani driving license, two Pakistani identity cards, and some Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and US currency from the accused. They also found two Pakistani and an Indian passport.
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