New Delhi: UP police shot and killed a man holding 23 children hostage in UP’s Farrukhabad early on Friday, rescuing all of them. Reports said that the children, who were aged between six months and 15 years old, were taken hostage after Subhash Batham invited them to his house for his daughter’s birthday party on Thursday.The children were taken hostage on Thursday evening and were held captive for almost eight hours. “The accused was killed and there were about 23 children who were rescued safely,” additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi said at 1.20 am on Friday, according to news agency PTI.UP Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary Home Awanish Kumar Awasthi on children kept as hostage at a house in Farrukhabad: The person who was holding the children as hostage has been killed in an operation and all children have been safely evacuated. pic.twitter.com/48QYcsoGRr— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 30, 2020“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,” UP director general of police (DGP) O.P. Singh said. He said the police had tried to “engage” with Batham.He said Batham initially released a six-month-old girl by handing her over to his neighbour from a balcony. Eyewitnesses said a restive crowd gathered outside the house where the children were kept.“On learning that he had firing capabilities and after his bomb-threats, all senior police officials decided to attack him. We tried entering the house when Subhash was killed during the encounter,” Singh said.The crowd broke open the door of the house to rescue the children, they said. As the accused opened fire, the police retaliated killing him on the spot.In the exchange of fire, the captor’s wife was injured, but none of the children suffered any injury. A man and two policemen also suffered bullet injuries.The police later confirmed that Batham’s wife died in a hospital after being thrashed by locals. Some reports say the man also held his wife and child hostage. As she was trying to escape, the wife was thrashed by locals who were present at the spot.He said she was rushed to a hospital as she was bleeding from a head wound, where she succumbed to injuries.The motive of the accused was not known immediately, but some reports said that Batham had earlier sent a letter to the local district magistrate in which he complained about the lack of toilet facilities in his house. He also claimed that he had been denied government housing.Earlier, a team of NSG (National Security Guard) commandos had taken a special aircraft to reach Farukhabad, a senior security official in Delhi said. Police said Batham is also accused of murder.Kanpur Range inspector general of police Mohit Agarwal said that the man held the children hostage in the basement of his house. He is believed to have fired six shots from inside the building. The IGP sad that Batham initially wanted to speak to the local MLA, but refused to speak to the leader when he arrived.Meanwhile, the government has announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for the police team which oversaw the operation. “All personnel who took part in the operation will be given a certificate of appreciation,” an official said.