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Uttar Pradesh’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), in a big operation in Lucknow, claimed to have cracked a big terror module by arresting two terrorists of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), a wing of Al Qaeda, on Sunday.
Both the terrorists are trained and were being handled by a Pakistani national, Omar al-Mandi who operated from the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.
Omar is assigned with the task to recruit members for Al Qaeda and radicalise them. He had formed a module of Al Qaeda in Lucknow consisting of members who are trained in carrying out terrorist activities in Lucknow. The terrorist group was planning big explosions in Lucknow and other areas of the state capital, especially crowded areas/memorials/other places and also on using human bombs in the state capital during or before the Independence Day function on August 15.
ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar identified the arrested terrorists as Minhaz Ahmed alias Miraj of Dubagga under Kakori police station and Masurddin alias Mushir from Sitapur road under Madion police station. He said a huge quantity of explosives, IEDs, pressure cooker bombs and firearms were recovered from both the places.
The operation was led by IG (ATS) GK Goswami and his team that was tracking these terrorists for a past one week.
The ADG said both the terrorists manufactured pressure cooker bombs with IED. He said a semi- manufactured pressure cooker bomb was recovered along with 6-7 kilograms of explosives.
Kumar said that raids were being conducted in Kanpur and other places by the ATS to nab the other accomplices of the arrested terrorists.
The accused disclosed that some of their aides escaped arrest after the ATS conducted the raid at the house where a garage was also being run.
Interestingly, the people in the Dubagga locality and the Thakurganj police were unaware of the sinister activities of the terrorist until the ATS conducted the raid.
The teams got the IEDs diffused by the bomb disposal squad. An FIR has been registered in this regard at the ATS police station in Lucknow and after producing them before the court, the ATS would seek the police custody remand of the arrested terrorist for interrogation.
During the raids nearby houses were evacuated and the ATS took the house under its siege.
The ATS got clues of terrorists hiding in Lucknow after a small blast recently in Jammu and Kashmir. The ATS claimed that some more terrorists may also be hiding at the spot.
The terrorists had burnt something before the arrest, the ATS said.
Jammu police officers of Kashmir are in touch with IG (ATS) GK Goswami, who led the raid.
On the disclosures made by the terrorists that their aides /supporters had fled as they got a whiff of the ATS raid, the local police conducted a massive search operation in Thakurganj, Kakori, Malihabad and other surrounding localities till late in the evening. The search operation was underway in Lucknow when reports last came in.