Red Fort attack suspect gunned down

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI, DEC. 26. A suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militant involved in the Red Fort shootout last Friday was gunned down by commandos of the Delhi police Special Cell in a ``fierce encounter'' in South Delhi early this morning. The encounter took place hours after the Delhi police, working on specific inputs from Central intelligence agencies, arrested another Pakistani national and his Indian-born wife.

Working in tandem with the Intelligence Bureau and other security agencies, police had identified Ashfaq Ahmed as one of the persons involved in the Red Fort attack. With the help of some telephone numbers recovered from behind the Red Fort on Saturday, the police were able to trace him.

They caught up with him in the house of his in-laws at Ghazipur in East Delhi at about 1-30 a.m. on Tuesday. His wife, Rehmana, who allegedly had full knowledge of his activities, was also nabbed by after a pistol, some cartridges and documents were recovered from their house.

Sent by ISI

The acting Commissioner of Delhi Police, Mr. R.K. Sharma, said during interrogation Ashfaq revealed that he was involved in the Red Fort conspiracy. Admitting to be a LeT member, he said he had been sent to Delhi by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) network of Pakistan in May this year to set up a base.

Having large amounts of money with him, Ashfaq had subsequently set up a computer centre, `Knowledge Plus', at Gafoor Market in the Okhla area of South Delhi. While he had invested about Rs. 6 lakhs in setting up the centre, his bank account still had Rs. 5 lakhs in it and his wife's account was found to be having Rs. 2.8 lakhs, Mr. Sharma said.

Besides, Ashfaq was found to have paid Rs. 50,000 as nikahnama (bride price) to his wife at the time of their marriage earlier this month.

Ashfaq, who was grilled by the police at night, reportedly revealed that he had planned a terrorist attack in consultation with his handlers in Pakistan. He was joined in Delhi by five terrorists whom he identified as Abu Samal, Abu Sadd, Abu Sakhar, Billal and Haider.

On December 3, Ashfaq said he hired a first-floor house at G-73, Muradi Road, Batla House, for the five men whom he had introduced as students to the landlord, Gyan Chand. He had also arranged transport and communication facilities for the visiting terrorists.

Then, Mr. Sharma said, all the terrorists had recced the Red Fort area. On December 22, all six gained entry into the Red Fort on the pretext of watching the English version of the light-and- sound show which is held from 7-30 p.m. to 8-30 p.m.

Entered through Lahore Gate

All the terrorists entered the Red Fort through Lahore Gate with assault rifles, magazines and hand-grenades hidden under their jackets. After the show, Abu Samal and Abu Sadd sneaked into the military area under the cover of darkness and carried out the strikes. Thereafter, they fled through the Fort's rear wall and escaped in autorickshaws.

Since Ashfaq said four of his accomplices had already left for Kashmir, but one was still holed up in the hideout at Batla House, police reached the spot at about 3.30 a.m. Samal was not there at that time, so police waited for him.

At about 5-20 a.m., when he was seen entering the house, police knocked on his door. When Ashfaq opened fire, they broke the door open, barged in, and gunned him down in one of the bedrooms.

In the encounter, which lasted about 20 minutes, nearly 65 shots were fired. One AK-56 rifle, 28 used cartridges, 30 live cartridges and two hand-grenades were recovered from the house.

Further, at Ashfaq's instance, police recovered one AK-56 rifle, four handgrenades, two magazines and 32 cartridges from near the Red Fort.

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