Police foil terrorist attack on RSS hqs, gun down 3 terrorists

Nagpur, Jun 1 (UNI) In a desperate bid to whip up communal frenzy, three heavily-armed terrorists, belonging to an 'Islamic organisation' made a vain attempt to blow up the RSS headquarters here but were shot dead by an alert police force in an encounter this morning.

Around 0430 hrs, a police patrol van spotted a white Ambassador car, bearing the registration number MH20B8979, moving in a 'suspicious' manner towards the RSS headquarters from the east side in the Mahal area.

The police chased the car, intercepting it near the Bharat Mahila School, but came under fire from the occupants, when they tried to apprehend them.

The police returned fire, killing all three persons inside the car. The three terrorists, aged between 20 and 25, were wearing police uniforms, City Police Commissioner S P S Yadav told UNI, adding twelve hand grenades, three AKM (AK modified) rifles and a large amount of RDX was recovered from the car.

''The possibility of the attack having been planned by an organisation like Lashkar-e-Toiba cannot be ruled out,'' he said.

The Ambassador car bore the registration number of Aurangabad from where about 30 kg RDX, 17 AK-47 rifles and a huge cache of arms were seized last month. However, RTO officials in Aurangabad told UNI that the registration number was of a moped, owned by city resident Babu Madat Ali.

This is the ninth attack on a major political or religious institution in the last six years.

In December 2000, two LeT terrorists attacked the historic Red Fort in New Delhi, killing two soldiers and a civilian before they were shot dead. In October 21, 2001, three militants attacked the heavily-guarded J&K assembly building in Srinagar, killing over two dozen people before they were shot dead.

Barely two months later, five terrorists, dressed in police unforms and in a white ambassador car with official numberplates, attempted to storm and blow up the Parliament building on December 13. However, they were gunned down in an encounter, in which six security personnel, including policemen and members of the Watch and Ward Staff, were killed.

In September 2002, four terrorists attacked the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar, killing thirty people and seriously injuring another 100. The year also saw two attacks on the historic Raghunath temple in Jammu. In March, terrorists attacked the market outside the temple, killing ten and injuring 19. In November, there was another attack on the temple in which 12 people were killed.

There was a three-year hiatus, which came to an end in July, 2005 when six heavily-armed terrorists, attempted to storm the high-security makeshift Ram temple in Ayodhya but were killed before they could make it to the shrine. In March this year, terrorists triggered explosions at two sites in the holy city of Varanasi -- the Sankat Mochan temple and the Cantt railway station -- killing at least twenty people and injuring 100.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was the first to condemn the attempted attack, appealed to the people to maintain peace and harmony. ''The entire nation is united against terrorism. All communities should live in amity and peace,'' he said in New Delhi.

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