The four Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists arrested in an encounter were planning a repeat of the serial blasts that rocked the city on October 29, 2005, Delhi Police said on Monday.
“They were planning to target crowded markets in the city on Monday. The plan was to plant three Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in these places,” joint commissioner of police (special cell) Karnal Singh said. The accused were taken into a ten-day police remand on Monday after being produced in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Maini.
The encounter with the alleged terrorists, identified as Bashir Ahmed Ponnu, Fayaz Ahmed Lone, Abdul Majid Baba and Shahid Gafoor, lasted for 25 minutes on Sunday night. The police said they fired 20 rounds in retaliation to 12 fired by one of the militants, the only one of the quartet with any weapon. The terrorists were cornered under the Ranjeet Singh flyover, near the Connaught Place. Neither the policemen nor the militants were injured in the heavy exchange of fire. “Only one of the four, Gafoor, resisted and opened fire. The other three had been caught before. Gafoor was the only one carrying a pistol. He opened fire from behind a tree,” deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Alok Kumar said.
The militants, Kumar said, revealed the markets they were planning to target during their interrogation. “But we don’t want to disclose the names of the areas and create panic,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The militants, Kumar said, revealed the markets they were planning to target during their interrogation. “But we don’t want to disclose the names of the areas and create panic,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The police denied that they cordoned off the area around Ranjit Singh flyover much before the shootout. "We received a specific information that three Kashmiri militants were coming to Delhi from Jammu by Malwa Express. A team was deployed at the New Delhi railway station. The train arrived around 9 p.m. and the team identified one person as Bashir. The four militants came out of the station and walked to Deen Dayal Upadhaya Marg (under the flyover) where they met Gafoor," said Karnal Singh. "The entire area was cordoned off by our team only after the firing began," Alok Kumar said.
Bashir Ahmed Ponnu, Fayaz Ahmed Lone and Abdul Majid Baba are Kashmiris while Shahid Gafoor is from Sialkot, Pakistan, the police said. He had illegally crossed over to India twice, once in 1998 and in 2002.
Three kilograms of RDX, four detonators, a timer and a pistol were found on the terrorists. “They were also carrying
Rs 50,000 and $10,000,” Alok Kumar said.
Email Abhishek Bhalla: abhishek.bhalla@hindustantimes.com