Cops foil plan to attack Delhi airport

The Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday claimed to have thwarted a fidayeen strike at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

"Three militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Tayiba were arrested by the Poonch district police from outside the state," Director General of Police Gopal Sharma said.

"Their preliminary interrogation revealed that they intended to carry out a criminal act of terror on Indira Gandhi International Airport around February 20," he said.

"The local guide who was entrusted with the task of facilitating the movement of the militants to Delhi and recce the area, however, managed to evade arrest," he added.

"The plan to target the Delhi airport was hatched in village Fazalabad in Surankote in Poonch district of Jammu region, where LeT commanders Abu Salama and Assadullah, under the supervision of the divisional commander of LeT, Abu Hanzullah, prepared the three freshly infiltrated terrorists to carry out the fidayeen attack," the DGP said.

Salama, Sharma said, was "the mastermind of the fidayeen attack on Jammu railway station on January 2, in which four security men died while nine others were wounded and another fidayeen attack at Poonch last year".

He identified the three militants as Assanullah alias Abu Bilal, Mohammad Bashir alias Abu Maria and Rashid alias Abu Kasha.

The DGP said the police recovered three AK-56 rifles, 12 hand grenades, a dozen magazines and 480 rounds.