Army, police still groping in the dark

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI, DEC. 24. The Delhi police and the Army have not been able to make a breakthrough in the Red Fort case and remain largely clueless about the identity and the whereabouts of the two militants who had stormed the historic monument on Friday night and gunned down three persons.

Though the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba has claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the persons involved as Shabeer Ahmed and Syed Mohammad Ali, police said they were not reading too much into this assertion. ``It is a claim and we are looking into it as well,'' a senior officer said.

The special cell of the Delhi police, which had been handed over the investigations yesterday, is trying to establish if the two militants were still in the city. The police wing which had conducted raids at a number of guest houses in Central and North Delhi as also at neighbouring Noida, today concentrated on the recoveries made by it.

Apart from an AK-series assault rifle which was found hidden in a longitudinal position beneath the fence of Vijay Ghat, the police have also recovered some papers, apparently left behind by the terrorists. Sources said these papers contain some telephone numbers which may help in the investigations.

Police have also more or less identified the entry and escape points of the terrorists. While police suspect that the militants had entered through the northern Salim Garh side of the fort, they are quite certain that the escape was made by jumping down the wall from the eastern Ring Road side. The recovery of a rope at a little distance from the exit point is also being investigated.

Across the Ring Road, police conducted searches at the Yamuna Pushta jhuggi cluster. They suspect that the culprits may have entered the congested area after hiding the AK-series weapon at Vijay Ghat. ``There is a possibility that the terrorists hid in the Pushta area and hid the weapon in order to prevent its detection. Probably, they had taken it later but it was spotted by some Vijay Ghat employees,'' said a senior police officer.

Suspecting that the terrorists might strike again to disrupt the Jammu and Kashmir peace process, they continued to maintain strong vigil near the Red Fort. The grounds behind the fort - from where the militants escaped - were today not open for the historic Sunday Bazar.

The Delhi police suspects that the terrorists and some of their associates may still be in the capital and might carry out bomb blasts. The police had on Friday night sounded a ``red alert''.

The Army has also deployed its commandos at vantage points along the boundary of the fort to prevent another strike.

Besides, armed personnel have taken up positions at the two main entrances to the Fort - Lahore Gate and Delhi Gate.

Meanwhile, the body of one of three persons killed in the terrorist strike was cremated at the Brar Square crematorium today.

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