Continuing the whip against the terror suspects involved in Bhopal-Ujjain train blast and having influence of IS, the Anti Terror Squad nabbed the mastermind and other his aide on Thursday.
Those arrested were identified as Gaus Mohammed Khan (56) of Chakeri in Kanpur and Mohamed Azhar (24) of Anwarganj locality of Kanpur. Gaus Mohamed is a retired air-force employee and is said to be the mastermind of the outfit/ module he was running for long time. The probing agencies found that Gaus had stayed in Thakurganj area of lucknow for above one year in the past.
Sources said Gaus Mohamed used to trap innocent youths to radicalize them with the IS ideology and also imparted them training in manufacturing of bombs, use to explosives and weapons. Gaus Mohammed was arrested from PGI police station area by the ATS and later his aide Azhar was arrested. Azhar used to purchase weapons for the module.
Gaus was being interrogated by the agencies to extract information about the number of men in outfit and their possible plan. Initial inputs had suggested that the radicalized youths were in plan to commit blast in some important places in the state capital. Sources said module members had great reverence for Gaus who used to preach them and inspire for Sahadat (sacrifice) and lecture on religious thoughts.
Meanwhile, ATS succeeded in getting ten days long custody remand of Mohammed Faizal Khan, who had been arrested by the ATS already. The team will grill him to know details about the module, their working area, their network and their future plan. The teams are also hunting Rockey Ranawat who used to supply weapons to the module.
On last Tuesday, acting on Central Intelligence agency input, a team of Anti-Terrorist Squad (UP) and commandoes had launched an operation in Haji Colony of Thakurganj and had gunned down a terror suspect, Saifulla of Kanpur, who had holed up at a house there. The terror suspect was gunned down after 12 hour long gun battle and ATS had claimed that Saifulla exchanged 71 rounds of firing on the commandoes and did not surrender.
On the other hand, a delegation of Rihai Manch visited the house where the encounter with the terror suspect had taken place. President of the association Mohamed Soeb said the issue demanded a high level probe as the ADG law and Order Daljeet Chadhary had claimed Saiffula to be self radicalized and that he had no link with the IS. He questioned that if Saiffula was a terror suspect why he did not flee the scene when a police team visited the house on a call of brawl between his neighbour Kayum and his son. He raised some other questions and demanded a thorough probe.