A so-called `routine alert’ by the sleuths of the Madhya Pradesh put the state police on high alert with security has been tightened in all districts on Saturday. The MP passed on inputs that “anti-national elements” dressed like Hindu saints were planning to carry out “spectacular” attacks at prominent religious sites and public places in Uttar Pradesh.
Reacting to above inputs, director general of police, Sulkhan Singh, who took over as state police head just on Saturday morning claimed that he had no specific information about inputs. ``I do not have details of any such inputs right now but I can say with full confidence that our boys are fully capable and equipped to face any such challenge”, Singh said to the media persons.
A senior officer in the intelligence head-quarter, however, dumped the inputs by MP police as a `routine exercise’ passed on by the intelligence agencies from time to time. ``Anyone wanted to involve in subversive activity mostly mingled with crowd to execute such crime so now after coming of Yogi Adityanath as chief minister, saints suddenly turning active all over the state so such apprehension is always there and we had already took necessary steps to counter them”, the officer further said.
Sources confirmed that the inputs provided by Madhya Pradesh police says that 17-18 men had been trained by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence in Hindu religious practices and shlokas, and they might try to blend into the local populace before carrying out terror strikes. “A group of 17-18 anti-national elements, trained in Hindu rituals, is planning a spectacular incident at prominent religious sites and other sensitive spots in the guise of sadhus,” the letter issued by additional director general of MP police read.
The alert comes roughly a month after Hindu hardliner leader Yogi Adityanath took over as chief minister of the state, and two days after UP’s anti-terrorist squad busted a suspected terror module along with sleuths from five other states.
A senior police official claimed here on Saturday evening that they tightened security in crowded places as well as important pilgrimages such as Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi. Besides, he said, additional security personnel were deployed at Taj Mahal in Agra, the high court in Allahabad and its lucknow bench, the assembly and secretariat buildings and other important government offices in lucknow. In Gorakhpur also, extra force has been deployed to keep a close vigil on any kind of terror activity. It may be mentioned that the MP police letter referred to a 2016 incident in which eight suspected members of the banned Students Islamic Movement if India (Simi) had also assumed the guise of Hindus to escape attention. The men were killed after escaping from a jail in Madhya Pradesh last year.
The document also cited the example of Gaus Mohammad, a suspected terrorist who was found living under a Hindu name, Karan Khatri, in lucknow in March. “In February, intelligence agencies in the state were tipped off about four dozen terrorists sneaking into UP through the porous border with Nepal,” read the letter. Some of these people, intelligence agencies believe, were specially trained by the ISI to fox security forces’ attention by their saffron clothes and knowledge of Hindu scriptures and practices. “In the past as well, we have information about ISI’s “Operation Krishna India” in which the agency would send its agents in the guise of Hindus saints,” the letter added. It may be also mentioned that earlier this week, some `suspected’ taking photographs in Ayodhya under mysterious circumstances have been detained by local police for interrogation.