Lucknow:
Four SIMI activists, arrested from Odisha, were planning to carry out multiple attacks on railway stations and in crowded places in Uttar Pradesh, a state Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) official said today.
"A team of ATS went to Bhubaneswar to interrogate four absconding (SIMI Students Islamic Movement of India) terrorists, who had fled from a jail in Madhya Pradesh in 2013, and were arrested in Odisha's Rourkela on February 17. During interrogation, they confessed to have planned to conduct blasts in Bijnor and nearby railway stations and crowded places," IG, Law and Order, Bhagwan Swarup said.
"The bombs were to be planted in bikes and for this they had stolen six bikes. These men were making bombs at their hideout in Bijnor in September 2014 when a blast had taken place following which they escaped," he added.
Alleged SIMI operatives Sheikh Mahboob, Amjad Khan, Zakir Hussein and Mohammed Salek were arrested along with Mahboob's mother Nazma Bi.
Mahboob was injured in the blast in Bijnor in 2014.