HYDERABAD:The police on Tuesday gunned down five suspected terror operatives, including Viqaruddin Ahmed, self-styled commander of Tehreek Galba-e-Islam, after they allegedly tried to escape while being brought to the city for a court hearing on the Hyderabad-Warangal highway.
The unexpected development came just a couple of days after the police killed two members of the Students Islamic Movement of India in an encounter in Nalgonda district. According to police, the five undertrials — allegedly involved in a series of offences in Hyderabad, Gujarat and other states including the murder of three policemen in Hyderabad and one in Ahmedabad — tried to escape by snatching their weapons forcing them to retaliate in self-defence.
Not a single policeman was injured in the incident while nearly a dozen bullets were pumped into the five suspected terrorists. Viqaruddin was suspected to have links with SIMI cadres as well as anti-India elements based in Pakistan. The five men, Viqaruddin and his associates Amjad Ali alias Suleman, Dr Md Hanif, Zakir Ali and Izhar Khan, were being brought from the Warangal central prison in a police van to the Nampally criminal court for trial in a case related to the firing on a police picket at Shalibanda, wherein a constable U Ramesh was killed on May 14, 2010.
DGP Anurag Sharma said during the journey, Viqar demanded that the vehicle be stopped to relieve himself. The escort party in-charge stopped the vehicle near the Kakatiya Arch on the outskirts of Tangutur village in Nalgonda district.Viqar got down along with the escort staff and boarded the bus after relieving himself. Immediately, he snatched an Insas weapon of an escort constable and opened fire.
The other four accused also tried to snatch weapons shouting, Maaro Saalenkon. “It is learnt that the escort party fired in self-defence resulting in the death of Viqar and the other four accused,” said Sharma, adding that investigation was on to find out the full details.
He also announced a magisterial enquiry and said the NHRC and Supreme Court guidelines were being followed during the investigation. Sources said there were at least 15 armed policemen in the escort party.
Of the five, Hanif was a native of Gujarat, while Izhar Khan was from Lucknow and the rest were residents of the Old City.
Viqaruddin, arrested by the Hyderabad police in 2010, was allegedly responsible for the killing of three policemen which was carried out to ‘’avenge’’ the police firing on Muslim youth in the immediate aftermath of the Mecca Masjid blast in May 2007 in Hyderabad. His associates too were arrested then itself. On an earlier occasion, Viqaruddin and his men had tried to escape from police custody but did not succeed. They were shifted to Warangal Central Jail in 2011 after they attacked a prison official in the Cherlapally Jail in Hyderabad.
Viqaruddin, who was nabbed from the house of Dr Hanif in Musheerabad, had opened fire at a team of Counter Intelligence cell at Santoshnagar in Hyderabad in December 2008, at another policeman at Falaknuma on the Mecca Masjid blast anniversary in 2008 and again the following year, before the third anniversary of the Mecca blast.
Besides Hanif, all including Viqar were members of the fundamentalist outfit, Darsgah Jihad-O-Shahadat (DJS) and later, after the Mecca Masjid blast, Viqar started his own organisation called TGI with the sole purpose of avenging the police firing.
They planned to kill a policeman every year on the Mecca Masjid blast anniversary. Viqar was also responsible for two robberies at e-seva centres in Hyderabad. Viqaruddin’s father alleged that it was a fake encounter and that his son was killed in cold blood. “We will approach the court and seek a CBI probe,’’ he said.