Lucknow: All the districts in Uttar Pradesh have been put on high alert after getting intelligence inputs from Madhya Pradesh that terrorists dressed like Sadhus may carry attacks at prominent religious places throughout the state.
Following intelligence inputs, the Uttar Pradesh police tightened security in all districts today after they received information that “anti-national elements” dressed like Hindu saints (Sadhu) were planning carry out attacks at prominent religious sites and public places.
The Madhya Pradesh police on Saturday morning provided inputs that near about 17-18 men had been trained by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence in Hindu religious practices and shlokas to carrying out strikes.
According to a letter issued by additional director general of MP police read, “A group of 17-18 anti-national elements, trained in Hindu rituals, is planning a spectacular incident at prominent religious sites and other sensitive spots in the guise of sadhus.”
The alert comes roughly a month after Hindu hardliner leader Yogi Adityanath took over as chief minister of the state, and a day after UP’s anti-terrorist squad busted a suspected terror module along with sleuths from five other states.
However, the newly appointed Director General of Uttar Pradesh police, Sulkhan Singh said, he “won’t be able to comment immediately on a specific issue”. “But, I can assure you that we are capable of neutralising any threat.”
A senior UP police official said that police tightened security in crowded places as well as important pilgrimages such as Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi.
He further said, additional security personnel were deployed at Taj Mahal in Agra, the high court in Allahabad and its Lucknow bench, the assembly and secretariat buildings and other important government offices in Lucknow.
The MP police letter referred to a 2016 incident in which eight suspected members of the banned Students Islamic Movement if India (Simi) had also assumed the guise of Hindus to escape attention. The men were killed after escaping from a jail in Madhya Pradesh last year.
The document also cited the example of Gaus Mohammad, a suspected terrorist who was found living under a Hindu name, Karan Khatri, in Lucknow in March. “In February, intelligence agencies in the state were tipped off about four dozen terrorists sneaking into UP through the porous border with Nepal,” read the letter.
Some of these people, intelligence agencies believe, were specially trained by the ISI to fox security forces’ attention by their saffron clothes and knowledge of Hindu scriptures and practices.
The letter added “In the past as well, we have information about ISI’s “Operation Krishna India” in which the agency would send its agents in the guise of Hindus saints.”
