Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 5: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has picked up seven Kashmiri students from Jamia Arabia madrasa in Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh.
The arrested students were suspected to be part of a Valley-based terror network. However, there has been no official confirmation of the arrests by NIA. As per sources, an NIA team had visited the Banda madarasa last month on the suspicion of the students' links with militants in Kashmir. After a thorough probe, the NIA identified seven Kashmiri students and arrested them. Before making the arrests, the agency officials had grilled the students along with madrasa coordinator on campus.
According to the madrasa coordinator Habib Ahmad, two NIA officials arrived there on Wednesday afternoon and conducted a prolonged closed-door interrogation of seven Kashmiri students who are studying Arabic in the institution. The coordinator said that in all nine persons were grilled by NIA officials and they wanted specific information about an ex-student Tauseef Ahmed who had also learnt Arabic from the same madrasa and hailed from Kashmir. He was arrested by the probe agency a few days back in the Valley. Following the interrogation, the NIA officials took all seven students into custody. However, according to highly placed sources, NIA got the clue about Kashmiri students from Tauseef's diary which had their reference. The Jamia Arabia is situated in Hathaura village under Dehat Kotwali police station area, 16 km from main Banda city. A renowned institution of Islamic education, this madrasa was established way back in 1933. The madrasa teachers spoke very high of the students picked by the NIA. "They are very bright students of our institution. We could never get air of their links with terror outfits. All seven were very diligent and brilliant students who were completely focused on their curriculum," said Mohammad Yunus, a teacher at the madrasa. |
