A senior police official privy to the investigation said the trio will be brought face-to-face with two previously arrested terror suspects Minhaz Ahmad and Maseerudeen

Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday took custody of three terror suspects— Shakeel Hussain, Mohammed Mustakeem and Mohammed Mueed—arrested in Lucknow on Wednesday for further interrogation after a local court allowed their seven-day custody remand, said senior UP ATS officials here.

They are allegedly linked to the alleged Al-Qaeda module busted by ATS in Lucknow on Sunday (July 11). A senior police official privy to the investigation said the trio was arrested for assisting two other terror suspects Minhaz Ahmad and Maseerudeen, who were arrested on Sunday, in arranging a pistol and were aware about their planning to carry out serial blasts in the state.

He said the trio will be brought face-to-face with two previously arrested terror suspects Minhaz Ahmad and Maseerudeen, who are already in ATS custody for 14 days since Tuesday. All five suspects will be cross-questioned before one another as Minhaz and Maseerudeen are not answering the questions properly and giving misleading facts to the investigators, he added.

Sharing further details, UP additional director general (ADG) of police Prashant Kumar said the trio will be quizzed about the gang through which they arranged a pistol for Minhaz Ahmad. He said the ATS took their custody from Lucknow jail authorities at around 6 pm. He said the trio was lodged in Lucknow district jail after they were sent to judicial custody on court’s directives on Thursday.

Earlier, the ATS had claimed to have busted an allegedly Al-Qaeda terror linked module in Lucknow on Sunday. The ATS claimed that the five terror suspects held in this connection were radicalised after watching online videos. He said Minhaz and his accomplices were planning to assemble bombs with gunpowder and other things easily available in the market to carry out serial blasts in Lucknow as well as other parts of the state before Independence Day (August 15).