Lucknow anti-terror operation: UP ATS arrests two, including former IAF employee, in Kanpur

Kanpur: The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Thursday arrested two people in connection with Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train explosion and Lucknow anti-terror operation.

As per UP Police's Additional Director General (Law and Order) (Law and Order) Daljit Singh Chawdhary, two suspects - Azhar and Mohd Ghaus Khan - were arrested in Kanpur.

He added that Mohd Ghaus Khan is a former Indian Air Force employee.

As per the UP Police, Mohd Ghaus Khan is the "mastermind" of a terror module that included Saifullah, a suspected terrorist killed in an encounter in Lucknow early on Wednesday.

Khan was picked up from Kanpur by the ATS and revealed vital information during questioning, said Chawdhary.

He said another suspect, identified only as Azhar, was also arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

Khan "is a technical man and a hardcore member of the module," Chawdhary said, adding he was the "main accused and mastermind" of the module.

He said Azhar, the second suspect, was the main supplier of arms to the module. He did not say where he was arrested from, or in what capacity Khan worked in the air force.

The UP police claimed that with these two arrests, all the main members of what they alleged was an ISIS influenced module are in custody.

The latest arrests raised to five the number of people in the UP police custody in connection with the blast on the Bhopal-Ujjain train in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. The MP Police has also arrested some people.

Yesterday, the UP police arrested three men after an encounter on the outskirts of Lucknow in which Saifullah was killed after a 12-hour ATS operation. Police say he and his alleged accomplices carried out the train blast in which at least ten persons were injured.

On Wednesday, the Uttar Pradesh Police said the youth killed in an anti-terror operation in Lucknow and his five arrested associates were "self-radicalised" and were trying to build an Islamic State Khorasan module in the city.

The Uttar Pradesh Police statement had come hours after its Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) killed Saifullah, a resident of Manohar Nagar in Kanpur, in an 11-hour-long gunfight in Thakurganj's Haji colony.

Also Read: Lucknow encounter: Delhi on high alert; slain terrorist Saifullah's accomplices may target crowded places

Chawdhary had earlier said they got inputs from several agencies about the likely presence of terror suspects in Lucknow, Kanpur, and Etawah after an explosion took place on a train in Madhya Etawah after an explosion took place on a train in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday in which eight people were injured.

Two of the terror suspects, Mohammad Faisal Khan and Fakhre Alam, were arrested from their native places in Kanpur and Etawah.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had, however, on Wednesday said in Bhopal that those behind the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train bomb blast had suspected Islamic State links.