Officials of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Monday arrested a dreaded criminal from Madhya Pradesh who was wanted for his alleged involvement in the 2008 Ahmedabad bomb blasts, as well as the murder of two policemen and several other crimes. ATS officials said one of his associates was shot dead in an encounter, which also left a policeman injured.
Officials said the accused, Mohammed Abrar Khan, alias Abrar Sheikh (32), has known links with terror outfits — Students’ Islamic Movement of India and Indian Mujahideen — and was plotting to assassinate the two judges that delivered the verdict in the Babri Masjid case.
According to ATS sources, the encounter occurred in Himayat Baug in Aurangabad at around 12.30 pm on Monday. The ATS’s Aurangabad unit had for the last two months been working on information that several members of a gang from MP was lying low in Maharashtra, and on Monday, received a tip-off that some of them would be in Himayat Baug.
“The ATS team, led by deputy commissioner of police Naveen Reddy and inspector Shiva Thakre, approached the three accused, who opened fire, injuring head constable Sheikh Arif Ismail in the left shoulder. The police returned fire, killing one of them identified as Khalil Qureshi (20) and injuring another, Moham-med Shakir (32), on both thighs. Abrar was the third man, who was captured unhurt,” said joint commissioner of police, ATS, Rakesh Maria.
Meanwhile, MP police additional DG (intelligence) R.G. Shukla told this newspaper, “The gang was planning to kill the judges who delivered the Babri Masjid verdict. We had told the Uttar Pradesh police this, and the UP high court had subsequently directed the UP police to provide protection to the judges.”