MTech student among 2 J&K youths held on terror charges

Two Kashmiri students, one pursuing MTech and another doing diploma in electrical engineering, suspected to be members of the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) were arrested near the Red Fort with arms, police claimed on Friday.

MTech student Pervez Ahmed Lone (24) and Jamshed Jahoor (19), a final-year-diploma student, were apprehended by the Delhi Police's anti-terror unit special cell at around 10:45 pm on Thursday when they were to leave for Jammu, a senior police official said.

Two sophisticated pistols, which the arrested claimed was bought for Rs 50,000 each, 10 cartridges and four mobile phones were allegedly recovered from them. Police claimed the duo, who hail from Shopian, bought the weapons from Uttar Pradesh's Amroha and were headed to Jammu when they were arrested from the Jama Masjid bus stop near the Red Fort.

"The ISJK is a nascent terror outfit in Kashmir. Pervez's younger brother Firdous, who was earlier with Hizbul Mujahideen, had joined the ISJK last December and was killed in an encounter in Shopian on Republic Day this year. Pervez was influenced by Firdous," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P S Kushwaha said.

Jamshed has allegedly facilitated Mohammed Abdullah Basith's movement, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Hyderabad recently.

Kushwaha said this was their second visit to Delhi. "They had gone from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh to Kashmir through Delhi in May," he said adding that they were acting under the instructions of Omar Nazir and Adil Tokkar, who are allegedly part of the ISJK.

The money was allegedly handed over to the duo by Nazir, who arranged it through hawala twice.

Investigators said they had no plans to carry out terror activities in the capital and were using Delhi only as a transit point.