The Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorism squad on Sunday said it has busted an alleged terror module linked to Al-Qaeda, ANI reported.
Addressing a press conference, the state police’s Additional Director General (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that a team of the anti-terrorism squad arrested two men on suspicions of having links with Al Qaeda’s Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind arm.
The two arrested have been identified as Minhaz Ahmed and Maseeruddin (also known as Mushir). The police have seized explosives and a pressure cooker, which may be used as a crude bomb, from Maseeruddin’s home in Mariahu town of Jaunpur district. Meanwhile, Ahmed was arrested from Kakori town of Lucknow district with explosives and a pistol, Kumar said.
Charges will be pressed against the two men and the police will approach the courts too seek their custody, the senior police officer added. The arrested men allegedly had plans to effect blasts in Lucknow and other cities of Uttar Pradesh ahead of Independence Day.
The police were also trying to trace other associates of the two arrested men, Kumar said, adding that they had accomplices in Lucknow and Kanpur, ANI reported. Their activities were allegedly being run from Peshawar and Quetta in Pakistan, the police said.
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