It was an usual day at the Paper Market in Ghazipur on Wednesday with children playing cricket and gulli danda on the wide roads and play fields. Asked if they had heard any gunshots on Saturday night, they said no without thinking twice.
On Monday, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police said it had arrested Abdul Subhan Qureshi, alias Tauqeer, alleged co-founder of Indian Mujahideen and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activist, from near the market after an exchange of fire.
A press release signed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P.S. Kushwah read, “Specific information was received that Abdul Subhan Qureshi will be coming to Delhi to meet an associate in Paper Market … he was apprehended near the Paper Market after a brief exchange of fire.”
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The police said the accused was the mastermind of the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts and was also involved in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts, among various terror activities.
14 rounds
A senior officer in the cell said 14 rounds were fired before Qureshi was apprehended and at least 10 officers laid a trap.
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However, people in and around the market said they had not heard of such an event.
The Paper Market broadly has four boundary walls and the sprawl has buildings erected all over. The roads in between are wide and towards the boundary, rather deserted after 9 p.m. when most factories shut down.
Mohammed Hanif (47) of Shalimar Garden, a contractor who helps rent out property on rent in the market, has his office right in the middle of the market. Mr. Hanif said he had not heard any gunshots around 8.15 p.m. on Saturday night, when, as the police said, the firing took place.
“We usually leave around 8 p.m. We didn’t hear anything. If something like this happens in the area, word spreads fast,” he said, as he mentioned a recent rape case where a 19-year-old was allegedly raped by an unidentified senior citizen on Friday.
The Paper Market is also inhabited by hundreds of jhuggis which serve as home to migrant labourers, mostly from Bihar. A jhuggi dweller who has been living in the market for the last four years, with six others, recalled the night and claimed that she heard nothing.
“If something happens here, we usually get to know but there was no firing,” Gulshan Devi said.
In Khoda Colony adjacent to the Paper Market, the people denied witnessing or hearing any gunshots as well.
A senior police officer privy to the case said that the accused had fled to a deserted area from where he was apprehended after the exchange of fire. “Adjacent to the Paper Market, there is a deserted stretch which leads to a dead end. He wasn’t aware of the topography of the place, it was dark and secluded,” he said.