The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Terror suspects wanted to ‘neutralise’ targets

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Terror suspects wanted to ‘neutralise’ targets

Staff Reporter

The targets of these men could have been police officials as well as politicians, say intelligence agencies

No first-time members of terrorist modules in State found possessing firearms
Suspects could be having specific targets, say intelligence agencies

HYDERABAD: Self-protection or ‘neutralisation’ of targets or both. These could be the reasons terror suspect Vikar Ahmed and his associates, who fled after firing at policemen trying to catch them at Santoshnagar on Wednesday, carried firearms, intelligence agencies surmise. Targets of these terror suspects could have been police officials as well as politicians. “They might not have plotted to enact a re-run of the recent Mumbai terror attacks with country-made pistols. But such weapons can be used to neutralise targets,” a top intelligence official observed.

This is not the first time members of terrorist modules in Andhra Pradesh were found possessing firearms. Two alleged operatives of LeT - Syed Aziz and Azam - who were connected to the Sai Baba temple blast case in Hyderabad and got killed in an exchange of fire with the police at Karimnagar and Ranga Reddy districts in 2002, possessed pistols. Their handlers in Mumbai provided them these short firearms. They were also accused of planning to attack prominent VHP leaders in the State then. Investigators believe Vikar Ahmed and his associates could have acquired pistols from their mentors in a similar fashion and arrived in the city with some assassination plots. Referring to the killings of right-wing leaders Nanda Raj Goud and Papaiah Goud in late 90s by gangs connected to terrorist outfits, murder of jeweller Mahavir Prasad by alleged members of Azam Ghauri’s Indian Muslim Mohammadi Mujahideen (IMMM) module, police said Vikar Ahmed also may target some individuals.

Police officials actively associated with anti-terrorist operations could equally be targets of Vikar Ahmed. Hyderabadi terror suspect Nazir, who was caught in Karnataka, reportedly admitted to its interrogators that terrorist modules frequently discussed about some Hyderabad police officials and wanted to attack them at the slightest opportunity. Vikar Ahmed’s connections to top cadres of the outlawed SIMI also prompted police to believe this. It was Vikar Ahmed who prepared a video CD by downloading provocative religious literature from Internet and passed it onto SIMI top leader Safdar Nagori who planned to organise camps at Vikarabad in Ranga Reddy district.

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