| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Three Lashkar-e-Toiba Hardboyz dispatched |
| 2006-06-02 |
| Mumbai, June 1: Militants disguised as policemen tried to storm the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s headquarters in Nagpur shortly before dawn today but were gunned down in their car outside the gates. The attack bid began unravelling around 4.15 am when policemen on duty spotted a white ambassador with a red beacon outside the eastern gate of Hegdewar Bhavan, the RSS headquarters named after its founder. “When the policemen challenged the vehicle, it started speeding towards the gate, breaking the barricades. Our team chased them and killed the three occupants in an encounter that lasted about five minutes,” Nagpur police commissioner S.P.S. Yadav said. The shootout took place about 100 metres from the eastern gate of the sprawling, tightly guarded building, but the militants managed to breach the first barrier, 200 metres from the gate. “The police found three AK-Ms, a modified and superior version of the AK-47, and 13 hand grenades, along with 5 kg of some suspicious powdery substance which seems to be RDX,” Yadav said. Preliminary inquiries suggested the attackers were members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba, police sources said. They wore police inspectors’ uniforms and were about 20-22 years old. One of them carried a diary. “The diary indicates they were Islamic militants,” Yadav said. The militants, he added, had left Patna a couple of days ago and intelligence agencies had alerted police chiefs. Taking no chances, Mumbai police today stepped up vigil at big shrines in the city. The thwarted attack comes weeks after a huge cache of arms was seized in phases in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad and 11 suspected Lashkar militants were arrested. ADDITIONAL: Friday, June 2, 2006 (Nagpur): The three heavily armed terrorists killed while attempting to attack the RSS headquarters have been identified as Pakistanis, state CID sources said on Friday. "They were identified as Afzal Ahmad Butt and Abu al Kalam Alad, both from Lahore while the third ultra was Mohammad Usman Habib from Gujranwala in Pakistan," a top CID official said. "Their identity could be established on the basis of seized diaries where names were written in Urdu along with their telephone numbers of respective places," the official added. Police are searching nearby villages to trace local supporters of militants and the owner of the car used in the abortive raid. They said the Aurangabad licence plate on the car was fake. Police have also found three names in a diary carried by the gunmen. Investigators are trying to figure out the nature of the explosive device and ascertain whether it was plastic or RDX. The arms and ammunition carried by the militants are similar to those recovered in Malegaon near Nasik a few weeks ago. Officials from the Mumbai anti-terror police squad are in Nagpur to aid investigators. |
| Posted by:DanNY |