Author: PT Bopanna
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: December 29, 2005
Suspected LeT men shoot dead IIT Professor
at IISc ---- In a move to spread panic in the IT capital of India, suspected
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba ultras attacked the serene campus of the Indian Institute
of Science on Wednesday evening and opened fire, killing a professor from
Delhi and seriously wounding five attending an international conference.
Reports said three to four masked terrorists
entered the prestigious campus at 7.20 pm in a white Ambassador car, fired
at random from AK-47 rifles at the delegates coming out of the JN Tata Auditorium
and fled the scene.
Prof MC Puri, a former professor of the Indian
Institute of Technology, Delhi, succumbed to his injuries, while the injured
delegates were shifted to private hospitals. An emergency operation was performed
on Dr Vijay Chandru to remove four bullets but his condition was stated to
be critical. The injured included Dr Pankaj Gupta, Mr Patel, Dr Sangeetha
and Ms Sonia, assistant professor.
Initially, the police were tight-lipped on
whether it was a terrorist attack, but Police Commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh
confirmed that automatic weapons had been used. The car park in the campus
was splattered with blood. The police confirmed the recovery of three magazines
but would not confirm whether they had recovered a rifle.
Bangalore, which had all along been a safe
haven for terrorists of various hues witnessed for the first time a terrorist
attack. A high alert has been sounded and major roads barricaded as police
began combing operations in the wooded campus.
Chief Minister N Dharam Singh has called an
emergency meeting of top officials on Thursday morning. The attack comes on
the heels of intelligence reports about the possibility of an attack.
Reports had warned of a plot following the
arrest of two terrorists by Delhi Police, belonging to the Harkat-ul-Jehad
based in Bangladesh. Since the police had stepped up security in major software
units, the terrorists had zeroed in on the Indian Institute of Science considered
to be a soft target.
It may be recalled that a Tibetan national
had breached the security at the campus a few months ago when the Chinese
Prime Minister had visited the campus. Apparently, there was a security lax
this time too because a security alert was sounded in the city a couple of
days ago following the intelligence input from Delhi.
In New Delhi, Home Ministry officials reviewed
the situation in an emergency meeting. The Institute came on the hit list
of LeT after their last year's annual session in Muridke (Lahore) where they
had decided to hit the country's economy by targeting vital installations
including the IISc.
