FAISALABAD: The Delhi police declared two seminary students of Faisalabad as terrorists, claiming that they had entered the Indian capital for terrorism; however, in reality both are present in the district.

The police had issued the alert in the Indian media on Nov 20.

A news report printed in the Indian Express on Nov 21, said “A high alert was sounded in Delhi

Tuesday after intelligence agencies informed the Special Cell of Delhi Police that two suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists had entered the capital. In an advisory, the Delhi Police asked the public to remain alert. “Anybody who spots them (terrorists) is requested to call Paharganj police station on 011-23520787 or 011-2352474.”

Two seminary students dubbed militants over social media picture

However, here on Monday, the administrator of Jamia Imdadia, Mufti Zahid said both the students—Nadeem and Tayyab—of his seminary were present in Faisalabad and they had never visited India.

In a press conference where the two boys were also present, Mufti Zahid said both of them were students of the seminary for the last couple of years. He said both had visited Lahore some days ago to attend the Tablighi congregation at Raiwind and then went to Ganda Singh border to watch the flag-lowering ceremony. He said they had taken pictures along a milestone which showed the distance to Dehli and Ferozepur and shared a picture on the social media.

The same picture was used by the Delhi police and the Indian media in the alert. It showed both the students leaning on the milestone.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2018