Odisha STF says foreigners are tourists, not terrorists

Foreign nationals who police suspected as terrorists for the mysterious way they absconded from a hotel here on January 25 night could after all be tourists.

Andhra Pradesh police detained the five Iranian tourists, two of whom were women, near Vishakhapatnam on Wednesday after they crossed the Odisha border and entered the neighbouring state.

Andhra Pradesh and Odisha police with Intelligence Bureau are jointly interrogating the terrorists since late Wednesday night, while Odisha’s Special Task Force (STF) has despatched a team soon after news of the tourists’ arrest emerged.

STF sources said the travel documents in the tourists’ possession are genuine. The tourists arrived in India in two batches in late December and first week of January with valid visa. Their passports are found genuine, while the car in which they travelled was hired from Delhi.