Locals alert police after suspecting bodyguards to be terrorists, says SSP Lucknow

After a massive search operation for four hours, Lucknow police has claimed that the alert call informing about five suspected terrorists  hiding in a call centre building at Chinchwad area of Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow turned to be a hoax.

“The STF received a phone call from locals of sighting heavily armed people. We did not find any terrorists hiding in the area,” said SSP Lucknow Deepak Kumar.

He added, working on the tip a search operation was launched by the joint security forces including Lucknow Police and STF to nab the suspected terrorist and sanitize the area.

A STF official part of the search operation said, “We could not take a chance as the intelligence agencies a week back had alerted of a possible terror attack to disrupt Independence Day and Janmashtami celebrations.”

The STF official added, “During search operation and investigation we learnt that a high-profile man with five to six bodyguards had visited the building.”

The officer added that police officials from four police stations were engaged by the Lucknow Police in the search operation.

The officer added, “Bomb disposal team and a dog squad team are also engaged in the hunt.”

The search operation was being led by Assistant Director General of Police (ADGP) Abhay Pratap.

A week prior to Independence Day, different intelligence agencies of the country had warned of a possible terrorist attack in major cities across the country to disrupt Independence Day and Janmashtami celebration.

(With inputs from Anil Yadav)