11:04AM, Wed Oct 10, 2012

British Man Arrested In India Over Alleged Terror Offences

By James Marley Location: Sunderland

A British shopkeeper is being questioned over alleged terrorism and gun offences in India.

Jaswant Singh Azad is in custody facing accusations of funding terror squads, giving support to Sikh militants in Punjab, and carrying a 9mm pistol and 15 rounds of ammunition.

The 60-year-old father-of-four has run a newsagents in Carlisle Terrace, Southwick, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, for nearly 30 years.

His wife Jasreigh Kaur said she feared for his health and protested his innocence, claiming he had only gone to India to build a retirement home.

She added: "My husband is a shopkeeper, not a terror financier.

"These allegations are so false that I was bemused at the suggestion of them.

"We have been law abiding UK citizens for more than 40 years and all our children were born here. The UK is our home.

"My children still have student debts and I have a mortgage. We don't have access to the kind of money that these allegations seem to indicate we should have."

Police in Jalandhar, where Mr Azad is being held, claim he was managing anti-government terrorist sleeper cells by providing them with money, networking and hideouts and used students to transfer the money.

Secret services claim to have evidence of him meeting wanted terrorists in Pakistan.

Police chief Gaurav Yadav alleges Mr Azad also has links to a Scottish-based group which funds outlawed Sikh militants.

The Foreign Office confirmed that a British national was arrested and that consular assistance was being provided to the family.

Mrs Azad said she shocked to discover her husband of 40 years had been arrested as a suspected militant.

She said: "I started crying after seeing articles and a picture of him on the internet stating he was connected to Indian terrorist organisations.

"I have repeatedly tried to speak to my husband, but have been denied access.

"A lawyer should have been appointed to him as soon as he was arrested but one was not and he is being deprived of a fair legal process. As a result I have spoken to my local MP and gotten the Foreign Office involved."

Mrs Azad said her husband had only returned to India to build a retirement home in his ancestral village, and finish a number of charitable deeds he was doing for the local school in the village.