LUCKNOW: After the 'admission of crime' by Gorakhnath Peeth attacker Ahmad Murtaza Abbasi, the security of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been increased with the inclusion of the CRPF battalion into the fleet.
Two platoons of CRPF have been deployed at the chief minister’s official residence at 5, Kali Das Marg in Lucknow. The development has come after a youth Ahmad Murtaza Abbasi, 30, attacked and injured two PAC personnel posted at the gate of Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur with a sharp-edged weapon while trying to make a forcible entry into the temple last Sunday night.
Meanwhile, Maharajganj police picked up two suspects, claiming themselves to be RAW agents, from a guest house in Nautanwa town of Maharajganj district, around 100 km from Gorakhpur. The police recovered an SUV with a Varanasi number plate, fake ID of RAW and other documents from the possession of the two identified as Rahil Parvej and Krishna Prasad.
Earlier, in his confession before the ATS sleuths in Lucknow, Murtaza Abbasi, a chemical engineer from IIT-Bombay, said that his hatred spawned from the feeling that ‘atrocities’ were being committed against Muslims. As per the police sources, Abbasi further said that he was against the introduction of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA-NRC).
According to the said confession, he went to Gorakhnath temple as cops were always stationed there and he wanted to move away from there after attacking them.
“I thought about the act from various angles before committing the crime. They [government] were implementing CAA and NRC against Muslims. Even in Karnataka, Muslims were being targetted. No one was doing anything about the issue. Someone had to do something. This is how I justified the act in my mind,” he said adding that he was depressed and wasn’t being able to sleep well.
Police said that the confession indicated that Abbasi had been radicalized to the extent that he was even ready to die, committing such crimes.
The police sources also claimed that Murtaza admitted that he had purchased the weapon that he used in the attack for Rs 400-500 and that he had reached Gorakhpur in a tempo (a three-wheeler). The police sources said that Murtaza had also accepted the fact that he had visited Nepal before carrying out the attack.
Meanwhile, the two suspected rounded up by the Maharajganj police from a guest house were being quizzed by IB, SOG, SSB, electronic surveillance cell and LIU sleuths.
The police sources claimed that some Pakistani and Nepal Mobile numbers were recovered from the mobile phones of the two suspects. The investigation agencies believe that the two suspects were looking to sneak into Nepal through the border. The police sources claimed that the two had taken refuge in the guest house since March 30.