Indian police arrest two young Nigerians near Pakistani border on their way to join Isis

INDIAN police have arrested two young Nigerians Imran Kabeer and Sani Jamiliu close to the Pakistani border suspected of being on their way to join the terrorist sect the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis.)

 

Both men, said to be in their early 20s, were arrested near the volatile India-Pakistan border after scaling a barbed wire fence. Alert Border Security Force (BSF) troopers apprehended the two Nigerians, both from Kano and handed them over to the local Punjab police.

 

Aged around 24 to 25, the two men who carried no valid travel documents to enter Pakistan, told BSF officials they wanted to go to Pakistan and later to Iraq. Both youths arrived in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, 30 km from Punjab on Thursday from Delhi in a hired taxi.

 

They argued with the taxi driver on Thursday night, hoodwinked him and drove away his Swift Dzire car. They then arrived at the integrated checkpoint at Attari yesterday morning, creating suspicion.

 

One BSF official said: “On finding the border gates closed, the youths moved towards a barbed wire fence along the Attari-Wagah rail track and jumped over the high barbed wire fence, thinking they had entered Pakistan. BSF personnel immediately nabbed them.”

 

BSF Amritsar sector deputy inspector general M F Farooqui confirmed the arrest, adding that the entire 553-km border between India and Pakistan in Punjab is on high alert following the July 27 terror attack on Dinanagar town in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district by Pakistani terrorists. Security is also tight in view of the coming Independence Day on August 15.

 

Both youths, who live in New Delhi, came to India on student visas about a year ago. While Imran is doing a BA at the Karnataka State Open University, Sani is a BSc student of the Kerala-based Mahatama Gandhi University.