Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed the Pulwama suicide attack
Two alleged Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists arrested from Deoband in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur recruited several young people to the terror group, anti-terrorist squad officers said on Tuesday.
Shahnawaz Teli and Aquib Ahmad Malik from Kulgam and Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, respectively, revealed during interrogation that they had recruited the young people, officer of the Uttar Pradesh ATS said.
The two were sent to judicial custody and taken to Lucknow jail after their police custody expired, the officers said.
During investigation, the ATS found evidence of their links with several terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen, sources said. During the probe, it was found that another JeM terrorist often visited them in Deoband, the sources said.
Important information about their activities was found through data extraction of their WhatsApp chat group, the ATS sources said, adding the officers are examining the antecedents of some people whose names appeared in the contacts list of the two alleged terrorists.
The sources said the ATS will track down the young people who were contacted by the two accused.
Teli and Malik, both in their early 20s, were living in Deoband posing as students without taking admission. The ATS got a tip-off from a student, after which they were put on watch, sources said.
The two were found with a .32 bore pistol with some cartridges and incriminating documents, sources said.