Capital shootout: Police claims killing mastermind of Delhi bombing

                    Indo-Asian News Service

      New Delhi, Sep 19 (IANS) Two suspected terrorists, possibly involved in the bombings in the capital a week ago, were shot dead and one was arrested while two managed to escape after a dramatic shootout Friday morning in a congested Muslim-dominated south Delhi neighbourhood, police said.

      Loudspeakers from a mosque in Jamia Nagar locality near the Jamia Milia University appealed for peace as restive crowds roamed the area even hours after the staccato exchange of fire ended with police leaving quickly with bodies of the dead and bundling them in a heavily guarded van.

      The events unfolded suddenly from around 10.30 a.m., when a large well-armed police contingent surrounded the area, and ended about 30 minutes later after the suspected terrorists were killed inside a fourth floor apartment in a narrow, winding lane where residents lived cheek by jowl and knew one another by their first names.

      Of the two terrorists shot dead, one was identified as Atif and the other Sajid.

      Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal said: "Atif was one of the key leaders of the Indian Mujahideen group. He was involved in planning and manufacturing of bombs. He belongs to Azamgarh (in Uttar Pradesh)."

      The Indian Mujahideen group, which authorities say is linked to the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India, has claimed responsibility for recent terror attacks in Indian cities, notably New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Hyderabad.

      Atif "also played a key role in the Delhi serial bomb blasts. He was one of the main people in the research, planning and execution of the blasts", the police chief said.

      Police, helped by commandos of the elite National Security Guard (NSG), surrounded the house L-18 in the rabbit warren of the Jamia Nagar neighbourhood after tip-offs from intellience agencies.

      Police seized an AK-47 assault rifle, two imported pistols besides a computer from a fourth floor flat where the terrorists, believed to be five in number, were holed up.

      "These people were living here for two months," Dadwal disclosed.

      Delhi Police Special Cell's highly decorated sharpshooter Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was in a critical condition after being shot thrice by the terrorists, with one bullet piercing his stomach, Dadwal said. A head constable was shot in his hand.

      While the police claimed to have caught the kingpin behind the Sep 13 serial blasts in the national capital that killed 24 people and injured over 100, the mood was very different in Jamia Nagar.

      Tension was palpable in the narrow bylanes with shops downing shutters and more than 5,000 police personnel being deployed. Classes in the Jamia Milia University were suspended for the day as news of the shootout spread.

      Angry residents were out on the streets shouting slogans against the police and alleging that the bodies had been planted in the apartment for the "fake encounter".

      The media also came in for flak after some channels allegedly wrongly reported that the terrorists were hiding in the mosque.

      S.A.R. Geelani, the Delhi University lecturer who was acquitted in the Deceember 2001 parliament attack, demanded a judicial probe into the shootout and said: "People have been harassed in the area for a long time. It is not something new. Whenever something happens, this area is the first target being a Muslim one."

      That most could not catch sight of the bodies of the two terrorists who had been killed added to the suspicion.

      Furious with the police for not showing the face of the terrorists and wrapping the bodies in a blanket, Faisal Khan, a resident of the area, asked: "Why didn't they show us the faces? If they were students or people from the area we could have recognised them."

      R. Abid, another resident, wondered how anybody could escape: "See the area for yourself. How can anybody run away in this crowded locality amid such huge police deployment."

      Saleemuddin, a local, fumed: "The truth is in front of us. Everybody is trying to malign Muslims. They are here because this is a Muslim dominated locality."

        Indo-Asian News Service

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