New Delhi: Three Hyderabad youths, who were arrested last week from Nagpur airport, have told the police that they were on way to Pakistan via Kashmir to join a jihadi group.
According to Hyderabad Police, the three also confessed that they wanted to meet Kashmiri separatist leader Asiya Andrabi using the name of their late uncle, former chief of Students Islamic Movement of India, Syed Salahuddin.
Police claimed that the three youths identified as -- Mohd Abdulla Basith, Maaz Hasan Farooq and Syed Omer Farooq Hussaini -- were ready to join any group -- ISIS, Al Qaeda or Hizbul Mujahideen.
"They had no direct connection with Andrabi, nor did she know them. After reaching Srinagar they wanted to meet her using their uncle's name and seek her help to cross the border," a senior officer of the special investigation team of city police said.
"From Srinagar they wanted to explore options for joining some terror organisation to wage jihad. They did not have any well-prepared plan and wanted to meet Andrabi or leaders of Hizbul Mujahideen," the official added.
The trio, all students (aged around 20-22), were picked up from Nagpur airport last week and arrested by Hyderabad police on December 27.
During the interrogation they confessed to hold jihadi ideology and said they were trying to go to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine via Kashmir to join jihadi forces of ISIS/ISIL to wage war against the state (India or elsewhere), according to the officer.
"In the past few weeks, the accused read a great deal of ISIS propaganda online, besides watching a documentary on Kashmir on YouTube, and also read a newspaper article on rise of militancy in Kashmir," the officer said.
The three have been booked under IPC section 121 (waging war against the government) and relevant sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
(With Agency Inputs)
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