Slain ISIS Khorasan Terrorist Linked to MP Train Blast, UP Was Next Target

Lucknow: Hours after the UP Police gunned down an alleged terrorist from a house in Thakurganj in Lucknow, preliminary investigations have revealed that the suspect was linked to the Ujjain train blast in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh was their next target, intelligence sources close to the Telangana police said.

"The Ujjain train blast appears to be a dress rehearsal for something big," the official added on the condition of anonymity.

All 3 terrorists involved in the train blast have been arrested. The mastermind was Atif Muzzaffar who is a resident of Kanpur along with Mohammad Danis also from Kanpur and Sayyed Meer Hussain from Kannuaj.

According to reports, it all began with a tip-off that the UP ATS received from Madhya Pradesh police about the presence of terror suspects in Kanpur and Lucknow around 5:15 pm.Also Read: ISIS Suspect Gunned Down in Lucknow After 11 Hours, UP DGP claims Success

Around 5:30pm the Madhya Pradesh Inspector General of Police confirmed that the ISIS suspect hiding inside the building in Thakurganj, Lucknow was behind the low-intensity blast in Bhopal-Ujjain train on Monday morning that injured 10 passengers.Also Read: ISIS Men Used Pipe Bomb in Bhopal-Ujjain train, Also Sent Pictures to Syria

Forces first made all efforts to nab the suspected terrorist alive, but when it didn't materialize, they had to fire chilly bombs in an attempt to flush him out.

After this the ATS commandos stormed inside the house and started firing, which continued till 8 pm, with several rounds of shots being fired. Commandos had drilled open a wall and used micro tube cameras to get a sense of what was going on inside where Saifullah was holed up. At one point of time during the operation the commandos felt that there are more than one person inside the house which turned out to be false in the end.

The police said that the terror suspect, identified as Saifullah, a resident of Kanpur, was a member of the ISIS Khorasan module and was getting directions from a handler abroad.

They also suspect that the train blast at Jabri railway station in Shajapur district of Madhya Pradesh was the first instance of a terror strike by an IS module in India.Also Read: Terror Suspects Belong to ISIS Khurasan, Say Police; Uttar Pradesh on High Alert

Suspect Saifullah had rented this particular house for the last 3-4 months and was living there with two others and did not mingle with anyone, an ATS official said.

Police suspect that at least 11-12 people are supposed to be part of the larger module.

Also recovered from the site were pages from the dead terrorist's diary after the encounter which detailed his daily schedule and flags of India and Israel. They followed a strict regimen where days were split into mundane chores while preparing for the terror operation, an official said.Also Read: 10 Things to Know about ISIS Khorasan, an Offshoot of the Original ISIS

The terrorists' to-do list was very tightly planned, starting 4 am to 8.30 at night.