Terror suspects in Hyderabad still untraced

Hyderabad, Dec 4 (IANS) The terror suspects who fired at policemen while they were trying to arrest a former activist of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were still untraced Thursday.

Two policemen of the intelligence cell were injured, one of them seriously, when Vikar Ahmed alias Ali Khan, an alleged former SIMI activist and member of the city-based rightwing outfit Darasgah Jihad-o-Shadat (DJS), and two to three others shot at them at Santoshnagar area here Wednesday.

The police said they were on the lookout for Vikar Ahmed, a suspect in the May 2007 blast in the historic Mecca Masjid here, in which nine people were killed.

Investigations are underway to ascertain if the terror suspects were in the city to carry out a major terrorist attack. Police sources said they might have been planning a blast, using a stolen two-wheeler.

The scooter, left behind by the suspects, was stolen in December last year.

The police had initially claimed that a man accompanying Vikar opened fire at policemen. However, a statement issued by Police Commissioner B. Prasada Rao late Wednesday said Vikar opened fire and so did one of his accomplices.

The statement said a case was booked against Vikar for possessing jihadi literature.

The police stepped up security in the city as the incident took place two days before the anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, and exactly a week after the terror attack in Mumbai began.