Suspected terrorists who fled Orissa caught in Andhra Pradesh

Five foreign nationals holding Iranian passports, who are suspected to be terrorists on prowl and gave a slip to the Bhubaneswar police on Monday were caught at Nakkapalli in the Vishakapatnam of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday night.

Out of the five, two are aged around 50 years a man and woman and three youth aged around 23 years.

AP additional director-general of police (law and order) R.P. Thakur said, “Based on inputs from the Orissa police, we caught them at Nakkapalli gate and shifted to Vishakap-atnam. Our officers are interrogating them. They are giving contradicting versions. We are verifying the terror links, if any. We haven’t found any explosives with them so far but still investigation is on.”

The suspects initially told the police they are all of the same family but the passports of Iran found with them show that they are not.

They also told the cops that they are coming from Hyderabad but it was found that they are coming from Bhubaneswar.

The police verified the car number and it was found to be a car rented from a travel agent in Delhi. To the travel agent, they told they are using it for local touring but they drove to Bhubaneswar.

A senior police official said, “All of them arrived at Delhi from other countries on different dates. They haven’t come on the same date. Some of them have come from Bangladesh. We are now talking to Iran embassy to verify the passports authenticiy,”

The Orissa police alerted the Andhra Pradesh police that suspected anti-national elements have passed the Palasa gate in Andhra Pradesh at 4 pm on Wednesday. Orissa inspector-general (Crime Branch) Arun Bothra said, “Concrete inputs have been obtained about the entry of the four terrorists who came to book two rooms hotel near Master Canteen Square on Monday evening.”

“We have intercepted a car at Nakkapalli and found four Iranians in it. They have showed their passports and we are verifying whether the passports are genuine are not,” Vizag rural superintendent of police, Koya Praveen told this newspaper.

Police has sounded high alert ahead of the International Fleet Review (IFR), which is scheduled to be held in the first week of February.