High alert along India-Nepal border after inputs of suspected terrorists in UP

Lucknow, Jan 05: Two suspected ISIS terrorists have entered Uttar Pradesh, following which an alert has been sounded along the India-Nepal border in Maharajganj, Kushinagar and Siddharth Nagar districts, a top police official said on Sunday.

'It has come to the fore that two wanted terrorists Abdul Samad and Iliyas can try to enter Nepal from Uttar Pradesh,' IG (Basti range) Ashutosh Kumar said on Sunday.

Acting on this, the alert was sounded in Maharajganj, Kushinagar and Siddharth Nagar districts along the border, he said.

The IG said photographs of the two have been widely circulated so that they could be identified. The officer said he was not aware which outfit they were affiliated to.

Previously, they were spotted in West Bengals' Siliguri and are suspected to be associated with the ISIS. Police have launched a massive manhunt to nab them, officials said.

India and Nepal share a 1,751-km-long porous frontier which has reportedly been used by Pakistani elements and terrorists in the past.

A number of such operatives have been nabbed by Indian border guarding agencies. Uttar Pradesh shares a 599.3-km-long open border with Nepal, touching seven districts - Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich, Sravasti, Balrampur, Sidhharthnagar and Maharajganj.