"Unka shukriya. Yeh sandesh purey India ke liye hona chahiye. Humare mantri chotey-chotey logon ko izzat dete hain. I thank the home minister. The message is meant for everyone in India. The minister respects even small people like us," says Mohammed Sartaj, slain militant Saifullah's father.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Parliament today that the government was proud of Mohammed Sartaj. "I express sympathy for the father and I am sure the House joins me," Rajnath said in Lok Sabha while briefing the House over the Tuesday's Lucknow terror encounter. The minister said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will be probing the Lucknow encounter.
Image: Mohammad Sartaj, Saifullah's father. He has refused to accept his son's body saying what his son did was "not in the country's interest". "We will not accept the body of an anti-national," he had said.
Saifullah was allegedly one of nine members of a newly-formed terror cell. Saifullah was killed in a hideout in Lucknow after a 12-hour operation. Though commandos tried to capture him alive, he refused to surrender. After he was shot, an ISIS flag and a train timetable were discovered near him; investigators say he and other members of his group - "self-radicalised" and "self-proclaimed as an ISIS cell" according to the Uttar Pradesh police - carried out a bombing this week on a train in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh in which nine people were injured.
Saifullah's father refused to accept his body yesterday at their home in Kanpur, denouncing him as a traitor. "One who could not belong to the country, how can he belong to me?" said Sartaj Mohammed, who works at a small leather factory.
Though the UP police has said that the group with allegedly nine members had no external support, other officials including some in the National Investigation Agency, which is handling the case, say there are signs of a handler that guided them, most likely from outside India, through chat rooms and phone calls.
Sources say that the group complies with the pattern of ISIS cells busted in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, who were indoctrinated online, largely self-funded, and told to organize weapons on their own to attack local targets.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Parliament today that the government was proud of Mohammed Sartaj. "I express sympathy for the father and I am sure the House joins me," Rajnath said in Lok Sabha while briefing the House over the Tuesday's Lucknow terror encounter. The minister said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will be probing the Lucknow encounter.
Image: Mohammad Sartaj, Saifullah's father. He has refused to accept his son's body saying what his son did was "not in the country's interest". "We will not accept the body of an anti-national," he had said.
Saifullah was allegedly one of nine members of a newly-formed terror cell. Saifullah was killed in a hideout in Lucknow after a 12-hour operation. Though commandos tried to capture him alive, he refused to surrender. After he was shot, an ISIS flag and a train timetable were discovered near him; investigators say he and other members of his group - "self-radicalised" and "self-proclaimed as an ISIS cell" according to the Uttar Pradesh police - carried out a bombing this week on a train in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh in which nine people were injured.
Saifullah's father refused to accept his body yesterday at their home in Kanpur, denouncing him as a traitor. "One who could not belong to the country, how can he belong to me?" said Sartaj Mohammed, who works at a small leather factory.
Though the UP police has said that the group with allegedly nine members had no external support, other officials including some in the National Investigation Agency, which is handling the case, say there are signs of a handler that guided them, most likely from outside India, through chat rooms and phone calls.
Sources say that the group complies with the pattern of ISIS cells busted in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, who were indoctrinated online, largely self-funded, and told to organize weapons on their own to attack local targets.
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