MP train explosion: Encounter in Lucknow; terror alert sounded across country

Lucknow: A day ahead of the last phase of voting in Uttar Pradesh, a gunfight between a suspected terrorist and commandos of the Uttar Pradesh Police`s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) was underway in thickly-populated Thakurganj area of Lucknow on Tuesday.

Here are the updates:

• A restrained Operation managed by senior officers. Need few more hours to finish the Operation. Want to investigate the suspect in detail, says ADG Law and Order.
• Intermittent short bursts of heavy firing continue.
• UP DGP calls meeting with ADG Law and Order, IG STF, IG Law and Order, IG Crime and SSP Lucknow.
• Operation still on. We thought initially that there is one youth inside, but there are two. Trying to arrest them as soon as possible, says ADG Law and Order.
• Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh speaks to DGP UP Javeed Ahmed and takes stock the ongoing operation in Lucknow.
• In order to arrest him alive, we used chilli bombs but he has not come out yet. He is firing intermittently: IG ATS.
• The suspect is firing intermittently, but we have stopped firing: IG ATS.
• The ATS team is using a gas cutter to break the house gate.
• Two terror suspects arrested in Kanpur, one in Etawah: ADG
• Holed up terror suspect might have links with ISIS: ADG (Law and Order) Daljit Singh Chawdhary
• The operation in Lucknow could continue for hours now. The ATS has asked for night vision goggles.
• The National Security Guard could move to Lucknow to assist the ATS.
• "Terrorists do not have any ideology and create disturbances whenever they get a chance. The police are on the job to nab such elements," Hansraj Ahir said.
• Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir tells reporters: "We are alert. We have sounded an alert all over the country."
• UP DGP Javeed Ahmed, when contacted, said: "We have detained someone from Kanpur. However, it is too early to link this suspected terrorist to the train blast."
• "We would be able to comment on the motive of the person once he is arrested. There is no point in sharing any input before the operation was over," Chawdhary said. He said it was a tactical operation, aimed at incurring the minimum loss.
• The suspect used to stay in the building, in which he is currently holed up, on rent.
• UP DGP calls meeting with ADG Law and Order, IG STF, IG Law and Order, IG Crime and SSP Lucknow.
• Additional Director General of Uttar Pradesh Police Daljit Singh Chawdhary confirms there is no hostage.
• The UP Police has begun carrying out raids in different locations across the state.
• Suspect has weapons, ammunition, but he is alone there, no hostage and nobody else is present there: IG-ATS
• When the police knocked the door (of the house where the terror suspect is holed up), he closed the door, and then there was a sound of pistol fire, which proved that he has weapons: UP ATS IG Aseem Arun
• In order to arrest him alive, we used chilli bombs, but he has not come out yet. He is firing intermittently and we have stopped firing: IG-ATS
• We had received an information today about a suspect present in Thakurganj area involved in a terror case. We conducted raids here: UP ATS IG Aseem Arun
• A team of UP ATS has surrounded a home in Kanpur too.
• Aseem Arun summoned elite commandos from Bijnaur police facility. The ATS team is trying to ensure that the suspect runs out of ammunition before barging inside.
• UP ATS IG Aseem Arun they are trying to convince the suspect to surrender. 
• An ambulance has been called in at the encounter spot.
• Three persons detained from Piparia town in Madhya Pradesh in connection with Bhopal-Ujjain train blast.
• Sources say more terror suspects could be hiding in Uttar Pradesh.
• ‪‪In a related development, the Madhya Pradesh Inspector General (law and order) has confirmed that the Bhopal-Ujjain train blast was a terror attack.
• An alert has been sounded in major cities in Uttar Pradesh.
• According to locals, at around 3.30 pm, over 30 policemen started vacating the houses in the locality to corner the suspect in Kakori area. "As the suspect got wind of their plans, he started firing at police party. Gunshots were fired from both the sides," local residents said.
• He added that the suspect inside the building is possibly from Lucknow and is suspected to have weapons.
• Chawdhary said one suspect in Kanpur has been arrested and on the basis of the information provided by him, they have reached to the another suspect in Lucknow.
• Talking to news agency ANI, Daljit Singh Chawdhary, the Additional Director General (ADG), Law and Order, said they had received inputs regarding the presence of two terrorists in UP - one in Kanpur and another in Lucknow.
• Saiful, allegedly linked with terror group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, is suspected of involvement in an explosion on Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train near Jabdi station in Madhya Pradesh`s Shajapur district. The incident in which at least eight persons were injured took place earlier today. 
• Saiful has holed himself up on the first floor of the house.
• A senior ATS officer is heading the operation, a senior police official told IANS.
• The densely populated neighbourhood has been cordoned off and at least 20 commandos are involved in the operation.
• Meanwhile, the UP ATS has urged residents of Lucknow not to come out of their houses. 
• Reports say the suspected terrorist, named Saiful, fired shots at security forces from a house in Haji colony of Thakurganj area, triggering a gunfight. Intermittent firing could be heard from the area. The authorities are trying to cajole the accused to come out and surrender. When asked to surrender, Saiful refused and said that he wants to attain martyrdom.
• A gunfight between a suspected terrorist and commandos of the Uttar Pradesh Police`s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) is underway in thickly-populated Thakurganj area of Lucknow.
  
  * This report is based on 'deferred live coverage` of the encounter.