LUCKNOW: In a pre-dawn encounter, two suspected Pakistani terrorists, believed to be Lashkar- e-Toiba members, were gunned down by an Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) team of the Uttar Pradesh police, while they were trying to enter Delhi, a day before Republic Day celebrations. Besides, four persons were picked up for questioning, police said.
According to Additional Director General of Police Brij Lal, who is also the ATS chief, police were questioning the four, picked up from different areas in Noida.
He said the 30-minute encounter, a joint operation of the Noida police and the ATS, took place around 2.35 am. Two AK-47 assault rifles, four magazines, 120 rounds of ammunition, five hand-grenades, nine suspected RDX rods and detonators along with Pakistani passports were recovered from them.
The dead were identified as Ahmed Ali alias Farooq, a resident of Okara in Pakistan, and Abu Ismail from Rawalakot in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Brij Lal said.
The passport recovered from Farooq bears the name Ali Ahmed, resident of Rahimyaar Khan in Pakistan, Brij Lal said, adding that some documents like identity cards and diaries were also recovered from the two. The ATS chief said that they were also found to be carrying two fake identity cards of a Delhi-based educational institution and there was a possibility that a local was also involved in the incident.
Brij Lal said the ATS team had been working for the past one month on a terrorist module and around Saturday midnight, it got the information that two persons, equipped with AK-47 rifles, were trying to enter Delhi from Lalkuan in Ghaziabad in a Maruti car.
The ATS unit deployed at Amity outpost in Noida’s Sector 97, just off the Taj Expressway, saw the suspected vehicle coming around 2.15 am and tried to stop it, following which the terrorists opened fire at the team. In the retaliatory fire, the two terrorists and ATS constable Vinod Kumar Singh, were injured, Brij Lal said. The injured were rushed to the hospital, where the two terrorists were declared brought dead, he said adding that constable Singh was out of danger.
