Lucknow: The Hizbul Mujahideen operative, Qamar-uz-Zama, arrested from Kanpur on Thursday, has revealed that he and his associates were planning a major terror strike during the 10-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Kanpur.

The ATS sleuths also recovered a phone from him which had sketches and videos of Lord Ganesha temple in Collectorganj, Kanpur. He has confessed that he was a member of Hizbul Mujahideen and was staying on rent in Kanpur for over a month and had been working as an electrician. Qamar-uz-Zama hails from Assam and police officials from Jammu & Kashmir and Assam are arriving to interrogate him. The police have taken seven day police remand from the court.

DGP O.P. Singh said, “The accused had been abroad for four years and was in touch with known Hizbul handlers in Kishtwar, Jammu &Kashmir, and had also done recce of important and sensitive locations in Uttar Pradesh”.

ATS IG Asim Arun said that Zama first came on the radar of security agencies when he posted a photo of himself wielding an AK-47 rifle on Facebook on April 8, 2018.