Author: Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: April 18, 2001
The three Pakistani terrorists killed
in an encounter in Lucknow on Wednesday planned to 'capture' Ayodhya and
kidnap some VVIPs, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police M C Dwivedi
said.
Describing the early-morning operation
as the 'biggest catch ever', Dwivedi told a press conference in Lucknow
in the afternoon, "This was the first time three known terrorists carrying
such sophisticated weapons and belonging to an international militant outfit
were gunned down in a close encounter in UP."
He said the terrorists planned to
carry out a "Red Fort-type" commando operation in Ayodhya "with the sole
objective of drawing international attention -- even if it meant capturing
the disputed site only for a few hours."
The terrorists were also planning
to kidnap some persons of national prominence and eliminate others. "The
objective was to get their associates released from Indian prisons," he
said.
[A junior officer of the Uttar Pradesh
Special Task Force claimed that among the terrorists' targets were Priyanka
Gandhi and the Karmapa Lama. Dwivedi, however, denied knowledge about this.]
The state police chief said that
on the basis of evidence gathered so far, "these three militants entered
India through Bangladesh some 10 months ago and were establishing a base
here.
"We also have reason to believe
that these terrorists established contact with some students in Bombay,
Cuttack, Deoband, Calcutta, Delhi and Allahabad [about 200km from Lucknow]."
While intelligence sources had received
information about the terrorists' entry into India a couple of months ago,
the Uttar Pradesh STF received clues about their movement in Lucknow only
recently.
"These militants received training
in Afghanistan," Dwivedi said. One of them, Rashid alias Pappu, was stated
to have been a personal bodyguard of Masood Azhar, chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammed,
who was released from prison in the deal with the hijackers of Flight IC-814
in December 1999.
According to Dwivedi, "Rashid, an
expert in preparing explosives, had also been earlier engaged in four separate
encounters with the Indian Army in Kashmir."
Apart from the sophisticated weapons
and ammunition recovered from them, two mobile phones and three SIM cards
were also seized from the terrorists. The SIM cards had all been purchased
in Bombay, which spoke of their connections there.
