The Hindu : Front Page : Militants had plans to trigger blasts in Delhi on Monday: Police

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 06, 2007
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Militants had plans to trigger blasts in Delhi on Monday: Police

Staff Reporter

PLOT FOILED: Alleged Pakistani militant Shahid Gafoor (third from left) along with Fayaz Ahmed Lone (second from right) and Abdul Majid Baba (left) in Delhi Police custody on Monday . - PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

NEW DELHI: The four suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad militants arrested following an encounter with the Special Cell of the Delhi police near the Ranjit Singh flyover here on Sunday night had plans to carry out blasts at busy market places in the Capital on Monday, according to the police.

During interrogation after their arrest, the three Kashmiri militants -- Bashir Ahmed Ponnu, Fayaz Ahmed Lone and Abdul Majid Baba -- purportedly revealed that they had been directed by Abu Haider, their handler and JeM district commander of Sopore in Kashmir, to hand over the explosives to Pakistani militant Shahid Gafoor.

Gafoor allegedly revealed to the police that he had been asked to configure three improvised explosive devices and plant them at busy and prominent market places in the Capital on Monday.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Karnal Singh said on Monday that at Haider's instance, the three Kashmiri militants had gone to Kolkata in the second week of January to exchange $ 10,000 with counterfeit Indian currency notes worth Rs. 20 lakhs from a Bangladesh-based conduit. But the person did not turn up and they had to return to the Valley, where they met Haider again. This time, Haider purportedly gave them the RDX explosive consignment, hand grenades, detonators and a timer to be delivered to Gafoor. But the Special Cell arrested them along with Gafoor following an encounter. "The police team fired 20 rounds, while Gafoor fired 12 rounds," said Mr. Karnal Singh.

Gafoor allegedly disclosed that he had had training in handling of arms and explosives and configuration of improvised explosive devices. He was first launched in the Poonch sector in 1998. He crossed over to the Valley for the second time in 2002 and took part in an attack on a Rashtriya Rifles camp.

"On the direction of his handler Farukh Qureshi, who lives in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Gafoor went to Bangladesh in the first week of January. He was received there by one Jamil, in whose house he lived for about three weeks. He then crossed the Indo-Bangladesh border with the help of an agent named Mulki. The agent dropped Gafoor near Kolkata," said Mr. Karnal Singh.

According to the police, Gafoor arrived in Delhi on Sunday morningbyPoorva Express to receive the RDX consignment and carry out the explosions. After executing the plan, the four were to escape to Kolkata where they were to set up base for further operations. The three alleged Kashmiri militants had also been directed to exchange the dollars with fake Indian currency notes from the Bangladeshi militant in Kolkata.

The alleged militants have now been remanded by a court to 10-day police custody for interrogation.Police claim to have recovered from Gafoor a diary containing numbers of his contacts operating from the Valley and Pakistan. Investigations are under way to identify and track down other militants who were in contact with the four.

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