The Hindu : New Delhi News : More terrorists may be hiding in Capital

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 28, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

More terrorists may be hiding in Capital

Staff Reporter

Slain terrorists were planning major attack?

The exact identity of the two militants remained unclear. The police said there was enough evidence to suggest that one of the militants was a Pakistani national.

NEW DELHI: Though the Delhi police suspect that the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists who were killed in an encounter with the Special Cell near Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on Monday night planned to carry out a major terrorist attack, they are yet to ascertain the exact target of the module.

Senior police officials said the previous module busted in the West Delhi in March had used the Capital as a transit point as they planned to target the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun and some software firms in Bangalore.

It was, therefore, difficult to tell whether this module planned to attack some vital installations in the Capital or elsewhere. The police suspect that more members of the module could be hiding in the Capital. Their arrest might shed some more light on the intentions of the terrorists.

Apart from 2 kg of RDX, an AK-56 rifle, 59 live cartridges, an ABCD timer, four electronic detonators and a satellite phone, the police also recovered a forged registration certificate from the Maruti 800 car in which one of the terrorists had arrived near Gate No. 2 of Pragati Maidan where the encounter took place.

The certificate mentioned the owner of the car as Mansoor Ahmed Wani, a resident of Gaffar Manzil in Jamia Nagar. However, the address was found to be non-existent. With the help of the registration number, DL-3C-K-3792, the police traced the actual address of the car to New Jain Software Technology in Qutab Institutional Area.

But inquiries revealed that the car had been sold to one Sumita Singh, a resident of Hissar in Haryana. "The car was sold to her in 1998 and a team has been sent to Hissar to verify the identity of the owner," said the Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell)," Karnal Singh.

Several toll tax receipts issued in Haryana have been recovered from the car. Also, several bills of filling stations of Jammu and Haryana have been recovered. The police now suspect that the car was brought to the Capital from Jammu via Haryana.

As of now, the police said, there was no evidence of the terrorists setting up a base in the Capital. Incidentally, the RDX had been wrapped in a sweet box which carried the name of "Pehalwan Di Hatti" from Jammu.

Meanwhile, the exact identity of the two militants remained unclear. The police said there was enough evidence to suggest that one of the militants, who had come to collect the consignment of arms and explosives, was a Pakistani national.

Vital diary

The police had recovered a pocket diary in the name of Osama, a resident of Sialkot, from him.The diary contained satellite telephone numbers and other phone numbers of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir. However, he was also carrying an election identity card in the name of Mohammad Amin Bhatt, a resident of Kishtwar in Doda.The second terrorist, who had come in the car, carried an election identity card, which gave his name as Manzoor Ahmed Wani, also a Kishtwar resident.

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