Militants involved in CRPF, IISc attack held; next target was BSE

Lucknow, Feb 10 (UNI) The Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police today arrested six Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists involved in the January 1 CRPF group centre and 2005 IISc fidayeen attacks.

Police claimed their next target could possibly have either been Church Gate or the Bombay Stock Exchange in the Maharashtra capital Except for one, all the terrorists have been trained in handling weapons and explosives and intelligence gathering in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), state Director General of Police Vikram Singh said here.

He claimed at least one of the apprehended terrorists was involved in the fidayeen attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore in 2005 in which a scientist was killed.

The attack on the CRPF group centre had left eight people dead, including seven paramilitary personnel.

While three terrorists were arrested around 1215 hrs from Rampur, the others were held around 0600 hrs from a taxi stand near the Charbagh railway station here.

The terrorists were to reach Mumbai in two separate groups via New Delhi and Agra. ''We have recovered maps of Mumbai from them...their target was either Church Gate or the Bombay Stock Exchange,'' said the DGP while denying any VVIP was on their list.

Those arrested from Rampur have been identified as Fahim Ahmed of Rawalpindi (Pakistan) and Mohd Sharif and Jang Bahadur both from Rampur, (Uttar Pradesh).

The LeT militants arrested from Lucknow have been identified as Abu Kasim of Madhubani, (Bihar), Abu Jar of Gujaranwala, (Pakistan) and Abu Sama of PoK.

Besides three Pakistani passports, the STF has recovered two AK series rifles, loaded magazines, five hand grenades, one Pakistan Ordinance Factory made .30 cal pistol (a replica of Russian Tula Tukarev 32/33 pistol) and two railway tickets for Mumbai from New Delhi and Agra.

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