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Three Pakistani terrorists gunned
down in Lucknow

Three Pakistani terrorists were gunned down in an armed battle with the police in the new Gomati Nagar township of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh in the wee hours of Wednesday.

The operation was carried out by the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh police that is assigned mainly to deal with hardened criminals and terrorists.

According to STF chief Vikram Singh, "The terrorists belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammad, a new outfit raised by Azhar Mahmood, the dreaded Pakistani militant released by the government in exchange for an hijacked Indian Airlines plane in December 1999.

Identified as Saleem alias Babbar, Rashid alias Pappu and Sajid alias Talha, they were allegedly on their way to Ayodhya with a number of lethal weapons when the STF team intercepted them.

"One AK-56, one AK-47, a 9mm pistol, ten powerful grenades and a substantial amount of ammunition was recovered from their possession," Singh said.

An identification card describing him as commander-in-chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad was found on the person of Saleem.

While he and Sajid were residents of Sindh, Rashid was carrying papers identifying him as a resident of Lahore, police said.

The bodies of the terrorists along with the weapons recovered from them were lying on the roadside behind a prominent public undertaking office building in the posh Gomati Nagar area until about 0900 hours (IST).

Vikram Singh told mediapersons, "On getting a tip-off about their movement in Lucknow, we managed to track them down by tapping their mobile phones. At around 0330 hours, as they were looking for a vehicle to transport them to Ayodhya, we challenged them and eventually eliminated them after a fierce encounter."

The police was on the look out for clues that could lead to their possible collaborators in Lucknow or in other parts of UP.

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