NIA picks up seven Kashmiri students from UP madrasa: Report

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reportedly picked up seven Kashmiri students from Jamia Arabia Madrasa in Banda district of Bundelkhand region. However, there has been no official confirmation so far.
Quoting sources, New Indian Express, said an NIA team had visited the Banda madrasa last month on the suspicion of their links with some activities. “After a thorough probe, NIA identified seven Kashmiri students and arrested them. Before making the arrests, the agency officials had grilledthe students along with madrasa coordinator on the campus,” the report said.
According to Madrasa coordinator Habib Ahmad, two NIA officials arrived in the madrasa on Wednesday afternoon and conducted a prolonged closed-door interrogation of seven Kashmiri students who were studying Arabic in the institution, the report said.
“The coordinator said that in all nine persons were grilled by NIA officials and that they wanted specific information about an ex-student Tauseef Ahmed who had also learnt Arabic from the same madrasa and hailed from Kashmir,” it said.
He was arrested by the probe agency a few days back in the valley.
Following the interrogation, the report said, 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 madrasa aalims and maulvis, according to the report, spoke very high of the students picked up by the NIA.
“They were very bright students of our institution. We could never get the air of any of the links with any outfits. All seven were very diligent and brilliant students who were completely focused on their curriculum,” the report quoted Mohammad Yunus, a teacher at the madrasa, as having said.