Two Jaish militants arrested in Delhi: Police

The police said that the two suspects, Abdul Latif Mir and Mohd Asraf Khatana, were planning to stay in south Delhi’s Nizamuddin for a few days before proceeding to Uttar Pradesh where they would allegedly receive some basic weapon training.

The Delhi Police on Tuesday said they arrested two Kashmir-based “militants” of the Jaish-e-Mohammad from Sarai Kale Khan in central Delhi and recovered two pistols and cartridges from them.

Thereafter, the two suspects would cross over to Pakistan with the help of their Pakistani handlers, said Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (special cell). (HT Archives. Representative image)

The police said that the two suspects, Abdul Latif Mir and Mohd Asraf Khatana, were planning to stay in south Delhi’s Nizamuddin for a few days before proceeding to Uttar Pradesh where they would allegedly receive some basic weapon training.

Thereafter, the two suspects would cross over to Pakistan with the help of their Pakistani handlers, said Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (special cell).

“In the past, these two men and their friends had made multiple attempts to cross the Indo-Pak border from places like Kupwara, Hyma and Keran in Kashmir, but their plans were foiled by the tight vigil of the security forces at the borders,” said Yadav.

The officer said that the special cell received a tip-off on Monday about the presence of the two suspects in Delhi. “We laid a trap and caught them in the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday. We recovered two guns and 10 cartridges from them,” said Yadav.

The officer said that a lot of “incriminating material” in the form of audio, video and literature have been recovered from their mobile phones.

Mir, 22, belongs to Baramulla while the other 20-year-old suspect, Khatana, belongs to Kupwara.

“Mir’s role model is JeM chief, Maulana Masood Azhar. Mir even has Azhar’s image as his Facebook display picture. He would listen to news on social media about brutality against Muslims across the world and that developed the ‘Jihadi mentality’ in him,” said Yadav.

Four months ago, Yadav said, Mir came in contact with a Pakistani man through Facebook Messenger chat. “Mir requested the Pakistani man to allow him a chance to join Azhar. Through the same man, Mir later got in touch with the Pakistan-based JeM operatives who said they would help him cross the border,” said the DCP.

Khatana had met Mir in Kashmir and they shared the same “ideology” because of which they became friends, said the DCP. “Khatana was brainwashed by local villagers about atrocities conducted by security forces on Kashmiri Muslims,” said Yadav.

The police did not say whether the two arrested men had been involved in any terror attack.