Terror suspects questioned over intentions to enter Indian territory
The trio has been in custody for six days since their arrest on Wednesday while attempting to sneak into Indian territory from the Sonauli border.
LUCKNOW: Three including a trained militant of Hizbul Mujahideen, arrested by UP Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) while attempting to sneak into Indian territory from Sonauli border in East Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj on Wednesday, were questioned about their intentions to enter India, said senior ATS officials. They said the ATS was questioning them after procuring their custody remand for six days since Friday.
The officials suspected that the trio was attempting to sneak into Indian territory with the intention of carrying out terror activities during the Lok Sabha polls and in the wake of the Ram Temple consecration earlier in January this year.
A senior ATS official confirmed that all three accused were identified as Mohammed Altaf Bhat, a resident of Rawalpindi in Pakistan; Sayyed Gajnafar, a resident of Jamia Ali Murtaza Mosque in Islamabad; and Nasir Ali, a resident of Srinagar. The official said that Bhat, who was born in Jammu and Kashmir, was a trained militant who shifted his base to Pakistan after the Kargil war in 1999 to join the Muzaffarabad camp of Hizbul Mujahideen.
The official said that Sayyed Gajnafar was also a Kashmir resident who had been residing in Pakistan for the past ten years and had been working for Pakistan’s secret service agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), while his nephew Nasir Ali was serving as an overground worker for the ISI within India.
He further said that the trio was attempting to sneak into Indian territory from the porous border at Sheikh Farenda village in Nepal near the Sonauli border. “The ATS investigators are currently scanning their mobile phones and contacts, and they will also be taken to different places in Kashmir, their place of origin, and other locations near the Nepal border where they were hiding to enter Indian territory,” he said.
Notably, the trio was arrested under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Foreigners Act, and IPC sections related to fraud, use of forged documents, and using them as genuine documents. An FIR was lodged at the ATS police station in Lucknow regarding the matter.
