Tuesday, April 26 2005 08:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Two militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), one of the them apparently a Pakistani national, were last night (Apr 25, 2005) shot dead in an encounter with Delhi Police in the heart of the city.

The militants identified as Osama and Shabbir were intercepted by a team of Delhi Police's special cell who had intelligence input that a consignment of arms and explosives from Jammu and Kashmir would be delivered to one of the duo near Pragati Maidan at about 09:00 hrs (IST), Joint Commissioner of police (special cell) Karnail Singh told sources.

One of the militants driving a car drew up to Pragati Maidan at around 09:30 hrs (IST) and he was joined by the other who walked up to the vehicle.

When the two tried to drive away, they were signalled by a police team to stop. Without heeding, the militants drove off to another road where too a police team, which had taken up position, asked the ultras to halt, Singh said.

At this, the militants came out of the vehicle and attempted to run away opening fire at the police team, which retaliated triggering the encounter in which both the ultras were killed.

They were taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where they were declared brought dead.

Two AK 56 rifles, two magazines, 59 rounds of ammunition, two kg RDX, four detonators, two timers, one satellite phone and a mobile phone were recovered from them, Singh said.

A diary recovered from their car identified them as Osama from Sialkot in Pakistan and Shabbir. The names were written in Urdu. It also contained several e-mail addresses and entries in Urdu, which were being checked by police.

Election identity cards recovered from the dead militants, however, gave their names as Wani and Mohammad Ahmed from Kistwar of Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said.

Police sources said the size of the consignment of arms and explosives indicated the militants wanted to carry out a major terrorist operation. But it was not immediately clear whether the venue of that proposed operation was Delhi or some other place.

Singh said police had information in the first week of this month that LeT was trying to set up a base in Delhi after which a team led by A C P Rajbir kept a tab on the matter.

Additional intelligence and technical inputs later spoke about LeT modules operating in the national capital and that a Pakistani has joined the module, he said.

On Sunday (Apr 24, 2005) the police was tipped off that this module was to be delivered weapons and explosives from Jammu and Kashmir yesterday and a further confirmation was received only yesterday morning following which a team led by A C P Rajbir, inspector Mohan Chand Sharma and inspector Badrish were assigned to track the militants.

Police were on the trail of the car in which one militant came with the consignment of arms, ammos and explosives before they intercepted the duo.

This is the second encounter in last two months. Three Pakistani militants were shot dead while they were planning to carry out suicide attack at Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun.