Acting on Central Intelligence agency input, a team of the elite Anti-Terrorist Squad (UP) and commandoes launched an operation in Haji Colony of Kakori area and gunned down a suspected ultra linked to the Bhopal-Ujjain train blast on Tuesday afternoon. The tip off came after a suspect was arrested while his aide slipped away from police dragnet in Kanpur on Tuesday morning.
Around 215 pm, an ATS team backed by lucknow Police teams cordoned off the densely populated Haji Colony on the firnges of lucknow and evacuated the local residents to launch the offensive.
After completely cordoning off the area, some members of the ATS team knocked at the door of the house where the suspect Saiful was holed up. Instead of coming out, he closed the door and then there was sound of pistol fire suggesting he had weapons.
later, IG ATS Aseem Arun using a hand held mike instructed the holed up Saiful to surrender. In return, he started firing at the police party intermittently. The ATS was in no hurry to storm the house. After returning fire, they waited for the suspect to run out of ammunition. In the meantime, IG Aseem Arun called in commandoes from the Bijnore training centre to mop up the operation.
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 team fired chilli bombs to flush out the ultra. 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 UP Police received specific inputs about terror suspects linked to the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train blast near Jabdi station in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday that left eight persons injured, two of them seriously, After this, we co-ordinated with the ATS chief and decided to launch the operation,” said ADG (law and Order) Daljeet Chaudhary.
IG ATS Aseem Arun said, “The police gave ample chance to the suspect to surrender but instead he resorted to firing with automatic gun. We wanted to keep the collateral damage to the minimum and hence were restrained in approach. It appears that only one person was hiding inside the house.”