M A I N   N E W S

Three Pak militants killed
Plot to capture Ayodhya shrine

Lucknow, April 18
Three hardcore militants belonging to Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit were shot dead in an encounter with the Special Task Force (STF) of the state police in the Gomti Nagar area here, the police said today.

The militants, identified as Salim alias Babar alias Ujaifa and Sajjad alias Talha, both belonging to Pakistan’s Sindh province, and Rashid alias Raizan of Lahore, were killed while trying to escape to Faizabad, Director General of Police M.C. Dwivedi said.

The militants had plans to eliminate some very important political persons besides capturing the disputed shrine in Ayodhya in the state, he said.

They had also contacted students of Islamic institutions of Mumbai, Kolkata, Cuttack, Deoband, Muzaffarnagar, Allahabad and Delhi to elicit their support, Mr Dwivedi said.

They had entered the country via Dhaka, a few months ago, and the state and central intelligence agencies had obtained clues about them. A special operation was launched to nab them, he said.

A huge cache of arms and ammunition, including one AK-47 and one AK-56 rifle, a grenade launcher, one nine-mm pistol, four electronic detonators, besides two mobile phones, were recovered from them, he said.

The Jaish-e-Mohammad was floated by Maulana Masood Azhar, one of the three militants freed by India to secure the release of the passengers of a hijacked Indian Airlines plane in Kandahar in December 1999.

One of the slain militants Rashid had been a bodyguard of Azhar and was involved in four encounters in the Kashmir valley, Mr Dwivedi claimed.

One letter with a stamp of the Jaish-e-Mohammad inscribed on it and containing details of arms and ammunition was also seized, Mr Dwivedi said.

Mr Dwivedi said no STF personnel was injured in the operation that took place early morning.

Chief Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the state police for their success.  
PTI, UNI