Two Al-Badr terrorists arrested in Mysore

Mysore, Oct 27: Police today arrested two members of the Al-Badr group after a brief encounter in the wee hours here, today.

Amidst Pakistan based terrorist groups spreading their tentacles in South India, police nabbed the two terrorists, identified as Fahad and Hussain, hailing from Karachi and Mansher in Pakistan, City Police Commissioner Praveen Sood told mediapersons here this morning.

He said, based on a tip-off, police waited for the duo on the outer ring road in the city at about 0200 hrs.

When they were asked to stop, the terrorists riding on a two-wheeler opened fire on the police from an AK 56 rifle.

Police returned the fire and in the ensuing encounter nabbed both the terrorists who sustained minor bullet injuries.

The police had information about the movement of Pakistan based terrorists in the city a few days ago. The arrest of the two Pak-based terrorists comes in the wake of terrorist threat to vital installations and major IT companies, mainly in the state capital Bangalore, the hub of IT activities in the country.

In December last year, in a shootout at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, where suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba insurgents killed a Delhi IIT Professor and injured four others. Another Pakistani terrorist was nabbed in Gulbarga two months ago.

Mr Sood said on a tip-off a police team waited for the two terrorists and when intercepted, both of them opened fire at the vehicle belonging to DCP, K T Balakrishna, with a pistol and assault rifle. Police replied with three rounds of fire and the insurgents lost control of the two-wheeler and fell on the ground. Immediately the policemen overpowered them.

He said on questioning the two terrorists revealed their identity and the group they worked for. The first terrorist had been identified as Fahad alias Neduthanni. His ''Indian identity'' was Mohammad Quia and he hailed from Karachi. The other was Mohammad Ali Hussian alias Jahanagieri and ''Indian'' name is Asif Khan of Mansher, also in Pakistan. Both are 24.

Later police searched the house in Rajendra Nagar in the city where the duo stayed and found some vital information on the plans of the terrorist group. Apart from chemicals kept to prepare bombs, police seized a laptop, desk computer and important documents relating to financial transactions. They also seized from their possession an AK 47 assault rifle, one pistol, a satellite mobile phone and another mobile from them.

Mr Sood said the letter-head of banned terrorist outfit 'Al-Badr' was found in their possession which confirmed that these two have been sent to Karnataka to study the various vital points to attack.

The two had made a survey of state secretariat offices in Viaksa Soudha in Bangalore and had sent the information to their headquarters in Pakistan. This information was found through the e-mails sent using the laptop.

The Commissioner of Police however denied that they were on their way to attack the sprawling campus of IT giant Infosys in the city.

However, it was revealed in the interrogation that they were moving towards Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), a leading language institute in the city which was visited by a number of foreign delegates regularly, to make a survey.

He said both Fahad and Hussian has been sent to Karnataka to take up survey from their base in Mysore and move around the state to identify the important targets.

Fahad has been in Mysore since last eight months and he was joined by Hussain four months back. They have been running 'royal fancy shop' in Rajendra Nagar and they had taken rented house in the area.

He said both of them would be produced before the magistrate later in the day and interrogation would continue.

Mr Sood revealed that police had information about the presence of Pakistan-based terrorists in the city some time back but could not track them despite continuous efforts until they were arrested today. Last night they had received some definite information which led to the arrest. He said when the terrorists opened fire on the police, their assault rifle was not in the automatic mode and only one shot could be fired at a time at that moment. Search was conducted at three places. However, incriminating documents was found only at their residence.

Replying to a question he said more details of their plans and possibility of other terrorists holed in the city could be gathered only after further interrogation. He did not rule out local people having contacts with the terrorists.

In all ten Pakistani nationals living in the city at present had registered their names with the police.

An alert has been sounded in the entire city with additional police forces deputed at all important places in the city, MR Sood added.

UNI