BOMBAY, 7 January 2006 — Acting on a tip-off from the Intelligence Bureau, the Anti Terrorist Squad(ATS) of the Bombay police yesterday morning swooped down in the thickly Muslim congested locality of Nagpada in central Bombay and arrested three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants identified as Khurshid Ahmed, Arshad Hussin and Mohammed Ramzan, who were allegedly planning to commit terrorist acts.
Addressing a press conference, city Police Commissioner Anami Narayan Roy said that the arrested LeT terrorists were hiding in Bombay and their aim appeared to be to spread their terrorist network in Bombay and other parts of the state and they were apprehended before they could begin the operations.
Roy said that the police seized from the arrested militants 20 detonators, five timer switches, remote control devices, one .32 caliber revolver and bomb-making equipment.
The police kept the news under wraps till late yesterday evening, fearing the leak of the news would help other suspected militants of the LeT to escape.
Police sources say that the arrested militants had a plan to attack some vital places in the metropolis on the Republic Day on Jan. 26, and expressed fears that another group of the militants might be in Delhi to disrupt and cause panic at the Republic Day function and parade. According to intelligence reports, militants of LeT and Al-Qaeda are alleged to be plotting together to carry terror activities on the Republic Day, and security has been beefed up to the maximum, sourfes said.
The police are also probing whether the militants were responsible for the recent shootout at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Roy refused to divulge further information, stating that it would hamper the investigations.
In another important political development in the city, the Shiv Sena received a serious jolt, when two of its legislators Kalidas Kolambkar and Shyam Sawant resigned from the party and joined the Congress. The legislators sent in their resignation letters to the speaker of the state legislature Babasaheb Kupekar, bringing the tally of the resigned Shiv Sena legislators to five. All these five legislators are strong supporters of former Sena leader Narayan Rane who joined the Congress and is now the revenue minister.
Earlier the three defecting Sena legislators Ganpat Kadam, Subash Barne and Shankar Kambli, who joined the Congress, were given tickets to fight the bypolls on Jan. 21, from the Rajapur, Sangameshwar and Vengurla constituencies, respectively.
