Hyderabad cops make more arrests as terror plot unravels

Even as the Hyderabad city police continue to search for a terror suspect, Viqaruddin Ahmad, his two associates have been arrested. The police said one of them -- 21-year-old Syed Amjad alias Salman -- was responsible for opening fire and injuring two head constables when they had gone to arrest Viqaruddin on Wednesday.

The other arrested person has been identified as Umar Bin Abdullah, a teacher in private school.

Police sources said the case of firing on the cops has been handed over to the Special Investigations Team as it has assumed more significance because Viqaruddin was believed to be planning a major terror attack in the city coinciding with the demolition of Babri Masjid.

The police sources said both Viqaruddin and Syed Amjad had gone missing after the blast in Mecca Masjid in May last year and their return to the city and their daring act of opening fire at the police was an alarming development.

The suspicion that they were planning something big was strengthened by the recovery of a stolen scooter from their possession. The police believe that Viqar and his associates were either planning to plant a scooter bomb or target an important person on the occasion of 'Black Day', marking the 16th anniversary of demolition of Babri Masjid.

A team of police also visited the VV Communication Centre from where Viqaruddin had made his last phone call before the police' attempt to arrest him bungled. The police was trying to find out his contacts by analysing the phone calls made by him and from his residence.

The police sources said that the counter intelligence cell was tipped off about the presence of Viqar and Amjad in the city by their counterparts in Mumbai.

"The Mumbai police learnt about their presence in the city from the youth, who were arrested in connection of the blasts in Mumbai and Hyderabad," the sources said.

During the search for Viqaruddin, the police also took about 20 youth into custody from different parts of the city, but they were released after questioning. The police say that Viqaruddin, a former member of a Hyderabad-based fundamentalist organisation Darasgah-e-Jihad-O-Shahadat (DJS), is a computer savvy youth and he had prepared a CD with scenes of alleged atrocities against the Muslim community in India including the large scale killings in Gujrat in 2001.

The police also believe that he has links with the outlawed organization SIMI as he had handed over the CD to Safdar Nagori, a senior functionary of SIMI.

The police have barricaded all entry and exit points of Hyderabad and Cyberabad to prevent Viqar from escaping. The police officials say that Viqar, a junior college drop out was also a master in changing his appearance and wriggling out of difficult situations.

Meanwhile, the condition of G Ramaraju, the head constable who was injured in firing by the terror suspects, continues to be serious. Ramaraju, who was hit in abdomen, was operated upon at the Apollo Hospital and was still in critical care unit.

The police is after Viqaruddin at a time when Hyderabad has come under a security blanket on the eve of the Black Day called by several Muslim organization on Saturday to mark the 16th anniversary of the demolition of Babar Masjid.