The Hindu : Plan to attack Delhi airport foiled: police

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

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Plan to attack Delhi airport foiled: police

By Our Staff Reporter

JAMMU, FEB. 21. Three militants belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), all of them Pakistan nationals, were arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday night, averting what police claimed an attack on the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.

Talking to reporters here today, the Director-General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir, Gopal Sharma, said the arrested persons intended to carry out the attack in two days.

A local guide, entrusted with the task of facilitating the movement of terrorists to Delhi, however, escaped. The arrested were identified as Assanullah of Gujranwala, Mohammad Bashir of Karachi, and Rashid, also of Karachi.

The DGP said the conspiracy was hatched in Fazalabad village of Poonch district, Jammu. The Lashkar commanders, Abu Salama and Asadullah, under the supervision of the divisional commander of LeT, Abu Hanzulla, planned it and hired the three men for the fidayeen attack. Abu Salama, according to police, is the mastermind of the fidayeen attack on the Jammu railway station on January 2 last in which four security personnel were killed and nine others injured, as also of the fidayeen attack at Poonch on December 10, 2003 in which the DSP, Poonch, Manjeet Singh, was killed. Recoveries from the three include three AK-56 rifles, 12 hand grenades, 12 AK magazines and 480 rounds.

Assanullah, a Pakistan national, was presented to the media. He said that he, along with four others, infiltrated through the Mendhar sector of Poonch district two-and-a-half months ago. He said: "They came here to fight a jehad but the local Muslims did not cooperate with them."

Sources said the tip-off about the terrorists came days after the gunning of the top Lashkar commanders in Poonch district and the recovery of documents from them. Three days prior to the Republic Day, police killed two fidayeens belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba in the Surankote area and several important documents were recovered from them. These included the photographs of the top army officers serving in the district.

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