LUCKNOW: The Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday arrested two more terror suspects, including a former Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel, in connection with Bhopal-Ujjain train blast as the terror plot was busted in State capital Lucknow on Wednesday.
According to ADG (Law & Order) Daljeet Chaudhary, Ghouse Mohammad Khan, a terror suspect and mastermind of ‘khorasan’ module was arrested along with one of his close aide Azhar from Lucknow in the follow up of Tuesday's terror operation carried out by the ATS in old city area of the state capital.
“Khan, a native of Kanpur, had been associated with Indian Air Force as an airman for a long time (1978 to 1993),” said the ADG adding that Khan was rearing an army of youth by radicalising them through Islamic literature -Dabik-- available on internet.
Khan, who was believed to have supplied arms to Saifullah, was bringing up the army of Islamic
State Khorasan module on the lines of the outfits like SIMI, HUJI and Laskhar, said the top cop.
ATS had shot dead terror suspect Mohammad Saifullah, a Kanpur native, on Wednesday in a 13-hour-long commando operation in Lucknow. So far six "self radicalised” suspects have been arrested by the Madhya Pradesh and UP cops on terror charges.
Saifullah was believed to have had a hand in Bhopal Ujjain Passenger blast which had left eight persons injured in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday morning.
Chaudhary had earlier said they got tip-off from several agencies about the likely presence of terror suspects in Lucknow, Kanpur, and Etawah after an MP train blast on Tuesday in which eight people were injured.
Working on the tip-off UP ATS arrested Saifullah’s two cousins - Imraan and Faisal from Kanpur -and Fakru Alam from Etawah, all of them terror suspects.
However, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been handed over the probe into the suspected terror plot, including the Lucknow encounter.