[Reader-list] Not again: Many loopholes in police theory of Noida encounter

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Noida encounter: Many loopholes in police theory
27 Jan 2009, 0200 hrs IST,  TNN

NOIDA/LUCKNOW: Talk about coincidence. Two terrorists, out to stage a
Republic Day attack in Delhi, stopped at a tea stall to ask for
directions
from a man -- who just happened to be a police informer, related to a
constable. Not just that, the barrel of an AK gun was peeping out from
their bag. The hawk-eyed informer spotted this and promptly told the
cops.

Too pat for comfort? Well, that's the version of the UP ATS. And
that's not the only thing that raises increasing doubts about the
veracity of the pre-dawn Noida encounter. The two alleged Pakistani
terrorists who were gunned down on Sunday morning weren't carrying
either a satellite phone or a mobile, the UP Anti-Terrorist Squad said
on Monday.

This would make it a first among major terror strikes in recent times
where the attackers had no means of communicating among themselves or
receiving instructions from their handlers.

Experts say, for terror outfits, communication is a crucial element of
any operation, be it the 26/11 Mumbai attack or the Delhi serial
blasts.

That's not all. It now surfaces that there are two versions on where
the ATS team started chasing the militants. The ATS says the pursuit
began from Amity checkpost in Noida, which is around 6km from the spot
where the alleged terrorists, Farookh and Ismail, were killed. A press
note issued by the director general of police headquarters in Lucknow
said that after the vehicle was spotted near the Amity police outpost
and the ATS men waved it to stop, the Maruti took a right turn and
tried to speed off. A hot pursuit, exchange of fire and final assault
by the men in uniform finally brought the curtains down on the ambush,
it added.

Noida police sources, however, maintain that the terrorists -- who
``confessed'' before dying that they were from Pakistan -- were chased
for 25km starting from Lal Kuan area in Ghaziabad, where the informer
first spotted their ``suspicious activities''.

The nature of the tip-off too raises doubts. Asked how the police
informer became suspicious, deputy inspector general (ATS) Lucknow,
Rajiv Krishna, said he had seen them with an AK rifle. The barrel of
the rifle was sticking out of an unzipped portion of a bag, he
explained, adding that the informer was actually a relative of a
police constable. ``The barrel of AK rifles has a typical `A' shaped
target guide. The informer saw the bag and noticed that 'A' jutting
out,'' explained Krishna.

It appears from this version that the terrorists were incredibly
indiscreet about the arms they were carrying for the mission.

According to the ATS, the informer had even communicated to them his
perception that the two suspects did not appear to be locals and their
dialect had a `Muslim touch'.

"Actually, the two suspects stopped at a tea-stall near Lal Kuan, and
by sheer luck, they asked our informer about the route and distance to
Delhi,'' Krishna said.

The terrorists, with gun jutting out of a bag, asking an informer
about the route to Delhi on Republic Day eve! Sheer coincidence or a
badly constructed tale? If you add to this the claim that the
terrorists were trying to enter the Capital in the early morning of
R-Day -- when security was likely to be at its tightest ^ the version
appears incredible.

The ATS, however, is sticking to its guns. Said Brij Lal, additional
director general of police, law and order, Crime and Anti-Terrorist
Squad, "There is a bullet mark on the vehicle that was leading the
chase. One of our jawans even suffered a bullet injury on his leg and
is still in hospital. In fact, a surgery had to be performed on his
wound on Monday to help it heal faster.''

``As far as the suspects' car is concerned (which has no bullet
marks), the cops chasing them targeted the lower portion of the car
and it was because of this that one of the rear tyres was punctured,
forcing them to abandon the vehicle and run for cover in the open,''
Brij Lal said.

Interestingly, the encounter site in sector 97 Noida is the same spot
where a criminal, Narendra, alias Kalu, was shot dead on December 18,
2008. He had allegedly murdered three businessmen in Baghpat a few
weeks earlier. That's not all. Three other criminals, including
gangster Birju Pahadi, were gunned down at exactly this spot on April
17 last year.

A Noida police officer said, ``Well, that is a lonely spot where
criminals can hide, absolutely undisturbed. Besides, these may just be
a coincidence.''

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Noida_encounter_Many_loopholes_in_police_theory/articleshow/4034140.cms