Police have zeroed in on three house-owners in Kamarhati who allegedly rented out their premises to three Jaish-e-Mohammad operatives arrested in Jammu on December 21.

According to Jammu and Kashmir police, the trio — Ghulam Farid, Mohammad Abdullah and Mohammad Imran — spent a couple of days in Calcutta before travelling to Jammu.

The house-owners, whom the cops interrogated on Thursday, said they were unaware of outsiders staying in their buildings. “They told us that relatives of their tenants might have stayed over. We are verifying their statements with their tenants and relatives,” said an officer of Belghoria police station.

Responding to a police request, residents of the area had informed officers of the police station about outsiders spending a couple of days in the three houses from December 17.

Members of some Kamarhati clubs, in the dark about the house-owners’ identities, are going from door to door to find out where the three alleged terrorists stayed. There are over 60,000 houses in the densely populated area and most of them have tenants.

Investigators also scanned the passengers’ list of the Jammu Tawi Express, which the alleged terrorists had taken out of the city.

“The names of the terrorists were not on the passengers’ lists. It appears that they did not disclose their real names while booking tickets. They might have booked the tickets and travelled separately,” said an officer.