Bharuch madarsa gets clean chit in Hizbul militant Irfan's case

Vadodara, June 7 (UNI) The Bharuch police has given a clean chit to Darul Uloom, a Kantharia-based madarsa, in the case of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Janbaz Hizbi alias Irfan, who was recently killed along with his accomplice Mohammad Ashraf in an encounter with the Indian Army in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), which was investigating into Irfan's alleged Gujarat link following the revelation that the terrorist was an ex-student of the Bharuch madarsa, recently picked up four of his room-mates for questioning, but freed them after they were found to be innocent.

Police is investigating as to how 17-year-old Irfan, who was studying Arabic in the madarsa for last couple of years and suddenly went missing from the institution in October last year, landed up at Pulwama in the militant-infested state.

The parents of Irfan, living in Kolhapur in Maharashtra, were reportedly informed about their missing son by the authorities of the madarsa last year.

Bharuch district Superintendent of Police G S Malik told UNI today that the sleuths of ATS and Kolhapur police had interrogated the principal, maulvis and students of the madarsa. No one has been arrested or detained in this connection so far, he said.

The four room-mates of Irfan, who were picked up by the ATS on Monday for questioning, had also been set free as the investigation was not fruitful, he added.

On May 30, Irfan and Asraf were gunned down in an encounter in a residential area of Pulwama during a combing operation undertaken by the Army personnel. The security personnel reportedly recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from their possession.

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