Investigators interrogating the three youths arrested for their suspected links with banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) today said that one of them had contacted a JeM operative who is believed to be an associate of a man believed to be one of the handlers in the Pathankot airbase attack.
The prime accused, Sajid, had allegedly contacted one Rashid Awan, who police said is an active JeM operative, and Awan is an associate of one Qasib Jan who is suspected to be one of the handlers in the Pathankot incident, an official privy to the investigation said.
Sleuths of Special Cell are digging into more details to gather more evidence on the matter.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police today said that it will soon have its own "deradicalisation" centre and a monitoring team to track down youths getting radicalised over social media and provide them with the right counselling.
The decision came after the force's anti-terrorism unit Special Cell detained 10 youths for their alleged ideological leaning towards JeM and later let them off, failing to gather adequate evidence.
The three arrested ones, being interogated at the Special Cell office, are Sajid, Sameer Ahmed and Shakir Ansari. All 13 youths were picked up after late night raids on Tuesday.
