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An alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist, suspected to be involved in the scooter bomb blast near Sai Baba temple at Saroornagar, was killed in an encounter with Rangareddy police late on Friday night.
Police spokesman Ravi Krishna said Mohammed Azam, 32, a resident of Yakutpura in the old city area of Hyderabad, was taken into custody at Medipally check post on the city outskirts, as he was riding a numberless scooter. The police recovered Improvised Explosive Devices from his vehicle.
During interrogation, he confessed to being a LeT activist since 1997 and being trained in Pakistan. Azam confessed that he, along with his associate Mohammed Imran, was responsible for the blast near the crowded temple.
Mohammed Azam said he and Imran had been working with the LeT headed by Abdul Bari alias Abu Hamza based in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
He disclosed that he planned to kill one D Narayana Reddy, resident of Gaddiannavaram, one Ajay Kumar of Hyderabad and G Pulla Reddy, state Vishwa Hindu Parishad president.
After his confession Azam told the police about some explosives kept at a hillock opposite the Central Power Research Station in Parvatapur forest area.
At around 11.20 pm on Friday night, he led the police party to the place.
While removing the IEDs and explosive materials, he suddenly brandished a pistol at the police party and fired two rounds. The police party immediately opened fire at him and he died on the spot.
Preliminary investigations by the police pointed to the involvement of the LeT since nine of its activists, who were planning to create tension in the city during the Dussera festivities, were arrested in August.
Both the central and state intelligence wings, which probed the explosion, concluded that the bomb was similar to ones used by the LeT.
Explosive material was kept in two boxes in a scooter.
While one kg of the material exploded, the remaining unexploded material weighed around five-kg.
The explosive material was cased in two metallic pipes and connected with a 9-volt battery, electric wires and a flashlight bulb. The explosive material consisted of ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, potassium chlorate and aluminium powder. The splinters included three types of nails, two types of screw nails and two types of metallic balls and few metallic pieces.
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