The suspect of the terror outfit Saifulla of Kanpur was neutralized by Anti Terror Squad Commandoes around 3 am on Wednesday after 12 hours long encounter with him at the house where he had holed-up on Tuesday.
During the twelve hours long gun battle, the ATS tried to arrest him alive and dropped chilli bombs and tear gas shells inside the room in which he was holed-up to flush him out. The teams also made him to talk to his brother and his neighbour in order to counsel him. But when the all these efforts failed the team carried out the operation and gunned him down.
After executing the operation successfully, the team searched the room in which Saiffula was hiding. The cops recovered eight pistols, each of .32 bore, 430 live cartridges each of .32 bore, 71 fired bullet shells, four knives,, three mobile phones, 45 gram of Gold (in form of gold coins), cheque books, ATM cards, Pan Cards issued in the name of Atif Muzaffar, 4 SIM cards, a Discover bike (UP3278CP/9704), two sets of walkie-talkie, a bottle filled with small sized iron balls, a packet detonators, 2 bottle filled with gunpowder, clock timer, compass, maps, a banner of black colour cloth written on which was God’s name in Arabic, three passports in the name of Atiq, Danish and Saifulla, hand written literature, an itinerary chart of work, prayer and meal scheduled of Ramzan month, Urdu and English literature, foreign currency (Riyal) and a cash of Rs 1.5 lakh from the room.
Giving detailed information, ADG law and Order, Dalijeet Chaudhary said Saiffula was self proclaimed and self radicalized terrorist. He said three terror suspects wanted in Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in Bhopal-Ujjain Passenger train in Sajapur of Madhya Pradesh were arrested on Tuesday. Those arrested were identified as Danish Aktar aka Zafar and Atis Muzaffar aka Al Qasim, both of Kanpur and Sayed Meer Husain aka Hazma of Aligarh.
“The agencies gave tip of the UP police about the aides of suspects who had taken shelter at a house in Haji Colony of Thakurganj area. The police team acted on the tip-off and a suspect was surrounded at the house which is owned by Badsah of Mall. Saifulla did not surrender before the police and he reiterated his claim that he will shed his life instead. He did not agree to his family members and brother to whom he had talk when he had locked self in a room at the house,’ the ADG said. He said the profile of the gunned down terror suspect was yet to be obtained.
The ADG further said Saiffula was killed in an encounter after the commandoes entered the room cutting the doors.
He said Saiffula and his aides were inspired by IS ideology and he used to ape the teaching and had indoctrinated self. “As of now we had no information/proof to say that he had links with IS. They were in plan to form a terror outfit IS Khursana but no details about the same was obtained as yet and the police are working on this line,” he said adding that Saiffulla and his aides used their own property/ self earned cash to meet the expenses to run the terror out-fit.
It surfaced that Saifulla and his aides used low intensity explosives as their modus operandi. The explosive recovered from him from the room was of low intensity. The ADG parried off the query how police will prove charges against suspects when the explosives were of low intensity and said some of them are hardened. “Saiffula was also hard to the core to his ideology and his working,’ he said.
A case was registered at ATS police station in Gomti Nagar of lucknow and further investigation of the case are on. The case was registered under section 307/ 121 A/ 122/123/ 124 A of IPC besides a case under Arms act (sections 3/4/25/27) and for activities against the law under section 16/18/23.
Meanwhile, the ATS Kanpur arrested a terror suspect Mohamed Faizal Khan of Kanpur from near JJ Colony under Jajmau police station area on Wednesday. Study material related to propagation of IS ideology were recovered from him and he was arrested after being challaned under unlawful activity prevention act 1967. The sleuths are interrogating the other suspect who was associating Faizal when both were detained. He was identified as Mohamed Imran aka Bhaijaan of Jajmau of Kanpur and was being interrogated.
In another success, an ATS team nabbed a terror suspect identified as Fakre Alam aka Rishu of Etawah and recovered a pistol loaded with cartridge. It surfaced that Rishu used to supply weapons to other members of the terror module.
A high alert had been announced all across the state and UP police is sharing the inputs to central agencies and police of other states.
On Tuesday afternoon, acting on Central Intelligence agency input, a team of the elite Anti-Terrorist Squad (UP) and commandoes had launched an operation in Haji Colony of Thakurganj where Saifulla was holed-up.
After he refused to surrender, the ATS teams backed by lucknow Police teams cordoned off the densely populated Haji Colony on the fringes of lucknow and evacuated the local residents to launch the offensive and completely cordoned off the area. Some members of ATS team knocked at the door of the house where Saifulla was holed up. Instead of coming out, he closed the door and then there was sound of firing suggesting they had weapons and heavy ammunition with them.
He was given warning by IG ATS Aseem Arun who used a hand held mike instructing Saifulla to surrender but even this did not work.
After the staccato of gunfire slowed down after 30 minutes, the security forces fired tear gas shells inside the room where the suspect was holed up around 430 pm. Some time later, the police teams fired chilli bombs to flush out the ultra. But their efforts failed.
After waiting for more than half an hour, a small commando team climbed an adjoining house, and drilled off a portion of the house in question to gain entry. The cops later dropped chilli bombs and later a camera was lowered with the help of a rope and pulley to take a view of the room.