The man, identified as Subhash Batham, was a murder accused out on bail and had taken the children hostage after inviting them to a birthday party.
Twenty-three children were rescued and the captor was killed by the Uttar Pradesh Police after an eight-hour standoff and encounter that started on Thursday evening in Farrukhabad district.
The man, identified as Subhash Batham, was a murder accused out on bail and had taken the children hostage on the pretext of inviting them for a birthday party.
The person who was holding the children as hostage has been killed in an operation and all children have been safely evacuated, Awanish Kumar Awasthi, UP Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary (Home), announced.
"Chief Minister (Yogi Adityanath) has announced an award of Rs 10 lakhs for UP police and its team that successfully carried out the operation. All personnel who took part in operation will be given a certificate of appreciation," Awasthi announced around 1:20 am on Friday.
"The operation ran for around 8 hours. We tried to engage him constructively through talks but we got information that he had firing capability and there was a possibility that he had explosives in his possession. He was threatening to carry out a blast," Director General of Police (DGP) OP Singh said.
The UP Police chief said cops tried to "engage" the accused and were successful.
Earlier, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) was called in and a request for the NSG (National Security Guard) was also made, top UP Police officials said.
The NSG commandos had taken a special aircraft to reach Farukhabad.
How it began?
The incident took place at Kasaria village in the afternoon when the accused invited the children to his daughter's birthday party. He held them hostage inside the house and refused to talk to anybody.
"The accused had invited the children for the birthday party of his daughter and held them hostage. It started about 5.45 pm on January 30 and continued for about eight hours," Singh said.
Inspector General of Police, Kanpur Range, Mohit Agarwal, said, "The man called the children for a birthday party and held them hostage in the basement of the house. He fired six shots from inside the building."
Batham had initially released a six-month-old girl by handing her over to his neighbour from a balcony.
He fired from inside the house on those who tried to speak to him. A man and two policemen suffered bullet injuries.
Batham wanted to talk to the local MLA, but he refused to speak to the leader when he arrived, Agarwal said.
The motive of the accused was not known immediately.
Police said Batham seemed to be mentally unstable.
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 "Farrukhabad hostage crisis ended after eight hours")
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