ATS commandos take position outside a Kakori’s Dubagga house |
Lucknow
The Anti Terror Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh police nabbed two terrorists of Al Qaeda from Lucknow on Sunday. The arrested terrorists along with others were planning to rock Uttar Pradesh before and on Independence Day.
The ATS and other security agencies have launched a massive search operation across the state to arrest others involved in this planning.
The arrested terrorists were also planning explosions in religious cities of UP. The ATS team has found IED and pressure cooker bombs from the arrested terrorists.
WHAT POLICE SAID
The Additional Director General (ADG) Law and Order, Prashant Kumar and Inspector General (IG), ATS GK Goswami informed that both the arrested terrorists were members of Ansar Ghazwa Tul Hind, an arm of Al Qaeda in India.
A huge cache of arms and explosive has been recovered from the hideout of terrorists in Lucknow. ADG informed that the terrorists who could be more in numbers were planning.
He said that ATS had an intelligence report about some terrorists planning to rock the state capital and other cities with explosive and human bombs on the eve of Independence Day.
Acting on a tip off, an ATS team raided a house in Dubagga locality of Lucknow and arrested one Minhaj who was a member of terror group. Huge amount of explosives and a pistol has been recovered from the house where Minhaj was residing.
Apart from the ATS, the team also raided a house in Mohbillahpur locality of Lucknow where it arrested Masruddin with a huge cache of arms under his possession.
The IG ATS said that the handler of these terrorists is Al-Zaidi who is based in Peshawar, Pakistan. He said plans to rock UP cities were prepared in Pakistan and terrorists were being instructed from there.
The terrorists had arranged huge amounts of explosives to execute their plans.
ADG Prashant Kumar informed that there could be few more people from Lucknow and Kanpur involved in this conspiracy and hunt is on to nab them.
The arrested terrorists have told during interrogation that few of their aides have escaped before the raid.
While interrogation is going the ATS teams are searching many houses in the area where these terrorists were residing.
What we Know so Far
-- The two ultras were reportedly hiding in a house in Dubagga area of Kakori, Lucknow. They were linked with Al Qaeda’s Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, ATS Uttar Pradesh has stated.
-- Suspicious material including 2 pressure-cooker bombs, a detonator, and 6-7 kg of explosives was recovered from the house.
-- The ATS team had received a tip-off and had been tracking them for the past week. A team led by IG ATS, GK Goswami, closed in on their location on Saturday and arrested the two from a house that belongs to Shahid.
-- An alert has been sounded in the Lucknow Commissionerate area, as well as in Hardoi, Sitapur, Barabanki, Unnao and Rae Bareli districts and western Uttar Pradesh in view of the terror strike plan.
-- A bomb disposal squad has been summoned to the site and nearby houses have been evacuated. The IG did not disclose the names of the arrested persons and said further details would be revealed after interrogation.
-- ATS sources said preliminary investigations have revealed the two ultras planned to target a BJP MP and senior BJP leaders in Lucknow.
Terror funding: NIA arrests several persons in Kashmir
Srinagar:
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) team on Sunday carried out raids at many places in Kashmir and arrested several persons, including the chairman of an Islamic seminary in a terror funding case. The NIA team along with Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF raided several places in Anantnag and Srinagar districts in connection with the case registered 10 days ago relating to the radicalisation in the Indian subcontinent.
Sources said the team raided an Islamic seminary named 'Sirajul Uloom' at Dalal Mohalla in old city Nawabazar area in Srinagar and seized some office records and a laptop besides arresting the chairman of the seminary, Adnaan Ahmad Nadvi. The institution is affiliated to an Islamic seminary in Uttar Pradesh. The raid at Srinagar was followed by similar raids at villages Pushroo, Sunsooma and Achabal in Anantnag district. The teams arrested several persons there, including one Javaid Ahmad Mir, an MBA and a shopkeeper; Umar Bhat, running a readymade garment shop; Owais Ahmad Bhat, laboratory technician; Tanveer Ahmad Bhat, shopkeeper; and Zeeshan Ameen Malik, chemist at Janglat Mandi in Anantnag town.
A special court in Delhi has framed charges against four persons in the Jammu Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust (JKART) terror funding case. It is alleged that the Trust was a front through which Hizbul Mujahideen received ₹ 80 crore between 2004 and 2011 to carry out terror activities in India.
An agency release said on Sunday the NIA special court, Patiala House, framed charges against Mohammad Shafi Shah, Talib Lali, Muzaffar Ahmad Dar and Mushtaq Ahmad Lone on Friday under sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The NIA registered the case in 2011.
Jammu IAF base attack: ‘Pressure fuse’ in bombs indicates role of Pakistan military
The ‘pressure fuse’ used in the bombs that were dropped on the Indian Air Force station in Jammu through drones in a first-of-its-kind attack indicates some elements of the Pakistan army or the ISI helped terror group LeT in fabricating the IEDs, as per security sources. The improvised explosive device (IED) that pierced the rooftop of one of the IAF buildings at the Jammu airport carried less than 1 kg of RDX and a cocktail of other chemicals whereas the one that was dropped on the ground contained a little over 1 kg of the explosives along with some ball bearings.
The sources said the IED used in the June 27 attack on the IAF station “definitely" used the technical expertise of the Pakistani military. The ‘pressure fuse’ used is similar to the ones used by the Pakistani army. A ‘pressure fuse’ is generally used in minefields, anti-tank mines and those dropped by the air force in the fuselage between the explosive and main detonator of a shell or an IED.
3 JMB men held in Kolkata
Kolkata
Three Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operatives on Sunday were arrested by Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force. A senior police officer said the three suspected terrorists Rabiul Islam, Mekhail Khan and Naziur Rahman used to sell fruits at South Kolkata’s Haridevpur area and used to stay in a middle-class society. “Since Khagragarh blast in 2014 the STF has been extremely active. Following a tip-off from the sources, STF conducted raids at several areas and suspecting these three people they were arrested. We are interrogating them and diaries with contact details of several influential people have been found and several mobile phones are also seized from them,” said the police. As per STF sources, some firearms, passports of Bangladesh and lots of important documents related to the JMB were also recovered.
