Lucknow: A suspected terrorist was killed in the wee hours of Wednesday after 12 hours of anti-terror operation, police said, refuting as "false" earlier reports of two terror suspects holed up in a house in the outskirts of Lucknow.
The anti-terror operation ended after nearly 12 hours. "After opening the doors of the house (where the terrorist was holed up), the force went inside and found the suspect dead along with weapons," Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Daljit Chaudhary said. "At one point of time it appeared that more than one person was holed up inside the house," he said.
Chaudhary said that the operation "stands closed now. Rest of the legal formalities will subsequently take place." The IG ATS Aseem Arun confirmed that the slain terror suspect was an active member of the ISIS.
"The slain terror suspect belongs to the Khurasan module of the ISIS and was an active member. But, whether he has been indoctrinated or not is a matter of investigation," Arun said.
Anti-terror operations were carried out to get hold of terrorists, suspected to be linked with the Bhopal-Ujjain train blast near Jabdi station in Shajapur district of Madhya Pradesh yesterday in which at least 10 people were injured, three of them seriously.
Speaking to the media after the anti-terror operation was over, Arun said, "Efforts were made to catch the suspected terrorist (identified as Saifullah) alive, but unfortunately this did not materialise. We fired tear gas shells and chilly bombs, so that he comes out. But, he did not come out."
The ATS commandos then stormed inside the house (after issuing a warning to the terrorist), Arun said, adding "The suspected terrorist then fired at the ATS commandos, which was then appropriately retaliated by the ATS commandos. After this, two rooms were thoroughly searched and checked, and the person identified as Saifullah was found dead."
The police believed that he might have been involved in a train blast in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh yesterday. An ISIS flag was recovered from the house and the bomb used in the blast was allegedly assembled in the same house.
"The police tried to negotiate with the suspect to get him to surrender. Chilli bombs were used to draw him out, but nothing worked," Arun said.
Eight pistols, 650 rounds of ammunition, 50 fired rounds, explosives, gold, cash, passports, SIM cards and a train time table were found along with the body.
"The danger was grave, but we managed to avert it... Had we caught him alive, we would have extracted more information, but we had no choice," Arun added.
The commandos also saw a wire wrapped around the stomach of the terror suspect, Arun said. "We suspect that it could possibly be an explosive. Hence, the Bomb Disposal Squad has been called to clear the room first. After this the investigations would commence," he said.
On earlier reports of two terrorists being holed up in the house, the IG ATS, said, "Since we were using the tube cameras to ascertain the details (of the suspected terrorists), the image was not very clear, and it appeared that there may be two terrorists holed up in the house. But, when the search and clear operations were carried out, only one dead body was found."
Asked to comment on the possible terror linkage of the slain terrorist, Arun said that this would be answered during the course of investigation.
