UP Police, ATS probe two ‘missing’ Kashmiri IIT Kanpur PhD students amid Red Fort blast investigation
New Delhi, Nov 22 (IANS) After investigative agencies tightened up their probe in the Delhi Red Fort blast case, Uttar Pradesh Police sources on Saturday said that two Kashmiri PhD scholars from IIT Kanpur have been missing under suspicious circumstances for the past 15 days.
Though institute officials have stated that they have no information regarding the students’ whereabouts but their ‘missing’ has raised serious speculations following the Red Fort blast on November 10.
According to sources, ATS, UP Police, Local Intelligence Unit, and other security agencies reached IIT Kanpur and are currently conducting a detailed investigation.
The agencies are examining student records, verifying movement logs, and gathering inputs to ascertain the circumstances under which the two scholars went missing.
One of the students has been missing since October 18, while the second student has been missing since November 10.
Both students joined IIT Kanpur in 2019 and are currently pursuing a PhD.
Notably, the state government and police headquarters have sought a detailed report on nearly 150 Kashmiri students residing in the city.
Notably, the State Investigation Agency (SIA) of J&K Police on Saturday detained another suspect in the continuing investigation into the blast near the Red Fort in Delhi, in which 13 people were killed and a dozen were injured.
SIA sources said that the agency has detained an electrician named Tufail Ahmad in Pulwama district.
Sources said the suspect, a resident of Srinagar city, was picked up from the Pulwama industrial estate.
On November 10, a Kashmiri doctor, Umar Nabi, working at the Al-Falah University in Faridabad, evaded arrest after his terror associates were arrested by J&K Police and Haryana Police from the Faridabad area.
Similarly, a Special NIA Court on Saturday allowed Jasir Bilal Wani, Delhi blast bomber Dr Umar Muhammad’s aide, to meet his lawyers for one hour once in two days while remaining in the custody of the anti-terror probe agency.
The Special NIA Court at Patiala House complex granted permission to Wani to speak to his lawyers for 20 minutes during each meeting, specifying that the appointment shall be scheduled between 5 and 6 p.m., a lawyer said.
The NIA has described Wani as an active co-conspirator of terrorist Dr Umar. He was arrested on November 17 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar for allegedly providing technical assistance for carrying out terror attacks.
He was reportedly involved in modifying drones and attempting to develop rockets ahead of the deadly car bomb blast.
–IANS
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