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Police claim `clinching evidence'
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, DEC. 14. A day after the terror strike at the Parliament House, security and intelligence agencies today felt that the needle of suspicion pointed to the Pak.-based terrorist groups- Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad - on the basis of evidence available so far. As many as 14 persons, including two Pakistan nationals, have been picked up for questioning by the Delhi Police. But the suspicion does not appear to be a firm pointer so far in unravelling the mystery of ``Who is behind it?''
Experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) have picked up some ``vital clues'' from the spot. The expertise of the U.S. investigating agency - Federal Bureau of Investigation - was also put at the disposal of the Home Ministry by the U.S. Ambassador to India, Mr. Robert Blackwill.
Another crucial clue, sources said, could come from a person arrested by the Special Operations Group (SOG) in Baramullah district in the Kashmir Valley. He could be vital in unearthing links with those who had masterminded Thursday's operation. A special team of the Intelligence Bureau and the Delhi Police is said to have been sounded out for rushing to Srinagar.
The Delhi Police Commissioner, Mr. Ajai Raj Sharma, said that they had ``some vital clues'' and sought two days' time to come out with ``concrete results''. ``We are not in a position to disclose anything right now as it might affect investigations,'' he added.
Police said that two Pakistani nationals, Mohammad Shafiq and Firoz Durrani, staying at Ambassador Hotel at Khan Market here were detained. They were reportedly picked up from near the Indira Gandhi International Airport while trying to flee the country.
The two persons are reported to have made several calls to Pakistan, and Toronto, Canada before the attack on Parliament House. They also made calls around 8-30 a.m. from a PCO inside the hotel - hours before the incident.
The PCO booth owner, Mr. Deepak Chawla, said that one of the two suspects, around five feet and seven inches tall, clad in a blue sweater, came to make the calls.
Immediately after the attack, a police team reached the hotel to detain the two but they had left for the airport, where they were nabbed.
The two suspects were brought to the hotel this morning and interrogated. While one of them was going to Toronto, the other was planning to fly to the U.S.
In another breakthrough, police identified the shop from where the terrorists had bought the car used in the attack.
`Next target Bush'
PTI reports:
``This is the property of the Ministry of Home Affairs and nobody can stop this car,'' wrote the terrorists in small-sized letters on the Home Ministry sticker pasted on the front windscreen of the Ambassador car.
``Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani are Indians and we are going to kill them. They are friends of George Bush and our next target is George Bush,'' the message read.
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