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

[Pawan Durani]

Dear Javed,

That makes an interesting reading . What is more surprising is that the car
had no bullet marks. In dense fog how did police find its target and the
'terrorists; did not. Why did the 'terrorists' not lob grenades.

Pawan

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 9:40 AM, M Javed <javedmasoo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Noida encouoter: 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
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>