Delhi on high alert after Noida shootout

Delhi on high alert after Noida shootout

Sunday, 25 January , 2009, 12:15

New Delhi:

The incident took place at 2.15 am in Sector 97 when the suspected terrorists were intercepted while they were travelling in a white Maruti 800 car, Additional Director General of Police (UP ATS) Brij Lal said at a press conference in Lucknow.

“The terrorists opened fire at the ATS team, which fired back at them. The driver of the car lost control and went off the road. Then the police team took cover behind a road divider and fired at them. During the gun battle, ATS officer Vinod Kumar Singh sustained a bullet injury,” Lal said.

The terrorists were injured in the shootout and they were taken to hospital, where they were declared brought dead, he added.

“One of the terrorists, while being taken to hospital identified himself as Farooq, a resident of Okara in Pakistan, and his companion as Abu Ismail from Rawalakot (POK),” Lal said.

The police are trying to find out the local contacts of the terrorists, he added.

“The number plate of the car (UP 14E 9531) was found to be that of a Bajaj Chetak scooter owned by a Ghaziabad resident,” said inspector Anil Samania of Noida Police.

Fake student identity cards were also recovered from them, he said.

The car’s engine and chassis number had been erased, police said.

Police intercepted the men’s car in the suburb of Noida as it approached Delhi at around 0200 local time (0730 GMT).

Officers say they found Pakistani passports with the men, along with AK-47 rifles and five hand grenades.

A high alert was sounded in New Delhi and its neighbouring areas after two suspected Pakistani terrorists were killed in a gun battle with the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror squad (ATS) in the Noida suburb early Sunday.The incident took place at 2.15 am in Noida’s Sector 97 when the suspected terrorists, who were travelling in a white Maruti 800 car, were intercepted. A gun battle ensued. The injured terrorists were taken to hospital where they were declared brought dead, police said.

Two terrorists killed in encounter near Delhi”An alert has been sounded in the wake of the morning’s incident,” Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said.Security has been beefed up at sensitive points, including the Metro and railway stations and crowded market places.Additional police personnel have been deployed along with bomb disposal squads at Delhi Metro stations, railway stations and inter-state bus terminals. Extra security cover has been extended to all the religious places in the capital, Bhagat said.

Barricades have been put up at various intersections and sniffer dogs are deployed at railway stations. Metal detectors have also been placed at entry points of many busy markets, he added.

Two AK-47s, five hand grenades, RDX, detonators, Pakistani passports and Rs18,000 in cash were recovered from the suspected terrorists, Additional Director General (Uttar Pradesh ATS) Brij Lal said at a press conference in Lucknow.

BSF foils infiltration bid along IB in Jammu

Two terrorists killed in encounter near Delhi

Blasts: Sadhvi, 2 others charged with murder

Source: Rediff

October 24, 2008 18:27 IST
Last Updated: October 24, 2008 19:30 IST
A young sadhvi suspected to have links with a Hindu right wing group and two other men were slapped with murder charges on Friday after they were arrested for their alleged involvement in the Malegaon blasts in which the police said the deadly RDX was used.

Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur along with Shamlal Sahu and Shivnarayan Singh, all hailing from Madhya Pradesh [Images], were produced before a chief judicial magistrate K D Boche in Nashik in Maharashtra which remanded them to police custody till November 3.

Public prosecutor Ajay Miisar said the crime committed by the three was a “serious offence” and they were booked under charges of murder, attempt to murder and voluntarily causing grievous hurt under IPC Sections 302, 307 and 326 respectively.

The sadhvi, who is based in Indore but who regularly visited Surat [Images] to give lectures, was picked up from the diamond city by the Anti Terrorist Squad of the Mumbai police. Shamlal Sahu and Shivnarayan Singh were brought from Indore in MP for questioning to Mumbai. The arrests were made in the last one week.

Misar said the motorcycle used in the Malegaon blasts on September 29 in which five persons were killed belonged to the sadhvi. Besides having links with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s student wing the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, she is suspected to be associated with the Indore-based radical Hindu Jagran Manch accused of involvement in the blasts in Malegaon as well as in Modasa in Gujarat in which one person was killed. The right-wing outfit has denied the charge.

Misar claimed that following the Malegaon blasts the sadhvi, who also is believed to be a member of Surat-based Vande Mataram Sanghatan, had several telephone conversations — all lasting “400 minutes” — with the other two.

Misar said forensic reports have shown that RDX was used in the Malegaon blasts.

The state had asked for 14 days custody, but the court gave only 11 days’ custoday, he added.

Pragya’s father Chanderpal Thakur said he does not believe his daughter was involved in the blasts.

“Her nature would not have allowed her to do something like this. It is a different thing that she may have known about it but I don’t believe that she was involved,” he said.

Why bother with news about blasts! Sreenivasan Raju Aiyer

Source: Rediff

October 01, 2008
News relating to terror attacks no more attract my attention. I do not take note of such items be it over the television or the print media. You can say my feelings have become numb. This many killed or that many injured (which varies from place to place, or on the intensity of bomb to bomb), RDX was used or ammonium nitrate was used, these do not mean anything at all.

We all know that when there is a bomb blast there has to be casualties. We also know who has planted those bombs. We all know prior to planting those bombs, they have already planted people sympathetic to their cause in vital places of political leadership, academia, print and visual media etc who would immediately pounce to justify these acts of terror. The act of terror which resulted in the death of so many innocent souls — many of whom who happen to be women, children, sole bread-winners for their families — does not mean anything either to those who perpetrated these acts or to those justifying the same.

Even those of the acts which was thought to be indefensible some time back, is defensible now. For example, we all thought tax-payers’ money cannot be used to defend those accused of anti-national activities. The recent Delhi [Images] bomb blasts and those accused of planting the bombs found at Jamia Nagar, and the Jamia university’s vice chancellor coming forward to defend the accused in a court of law using grants received from the UGC for running the central university, is a case in point.

The irony is this stance of the JMI vice chancellor is finding support in other central government funded universities where meetings of teachers’ associations are being held, seminars conducted to support him almost on the same lines as support extended to SAR Geelani and Afzal Guru.

As of now we still believe government funds cannot be used for providing arms and ammunition to jihadi, naxalite, Maoist and other violent groups (such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bajrang Dal if it would please those inclined to think so). This job has been assigned to Dawood Ibrahim [Images], Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, the Chinese government, or may be the CIA.

But who knows? A time may come when human rights activists, liberals, intellectual elite, eminent persons, secularists and other lumpen elements may argue that it is okay for the State to fund the activities of such violent groups who according to them mean well to “liberate” those people who vibe on the same wavelength with them!

So my question is, why waste time on reading or viewing such news reports? We might as well spend that time more fruitfully in the company of our family and friends because you never know in which nook or corner a bomb has been very kindly planted for promoting acts of “liberation”!

Sreenivasan Raju Aiyer is with the Centre for East Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University