New Delhi, January 04: Two days after three Pakistani terrorists made a comfortable escape from an eatery in central Delhi, the special cell has been handed the task of tracking them.
ACP Ravi Shankar of the special cell, who had arrested the trio 10 years ago along with five others, is now on their trail.
The five others in custody are being questioned regarding the escape of the terrorists — Abdul Razzak, Mohammed Sadiq and Rafaqat Ali.
“ It seems the escape was premeditated,” said a police officer. All the three escaped men had links with Pakistan’s Inter- Services Intelligence. While Razzak was a resident of Narwal, Rafaqat was from Lahore and Sadiq from Sialkot, police sources said.
Hunting for clues about the incident, the Delhi Police spoke to Dino Moni Singh, a Meghalaya police sub- inspector posted with foreigner regional registration office ( FRRO). He was escorting the three terrorists alone on Friday when they escaped. They were being taken to the Guru Nanak Eye Hospital from Lampur in the Narela area.
Singh had told the Delhi Police that he along with the trio travelled in a hired Maruti van driven by Dharminder. After finishing the eye check- up, Singh stopped for lunch at a Chandni Chowk eatery. He revealed that the terrorists paid the lunch bill.
After the lunch, they were walking back towards the vehicle.
When he left them for a moment to relieve himself, the trio vanished.
The sub- inspector also revealed that though he understood Hindi, he did not get any hint of their plans to escape.
The escorting policemen claimed that he tried to locate them for several hours before reporting the incident to his seniors at Lampur late at night.
Police sources said the version of Dharminder matched that of the sub- inspector.
Yet the motive behind the escape has continued to baffle the sleuths. The police are examining the possibility of the trio having made way towards the Nepal border through Uttar Pradesh.
Surinder Kumar, the owner of the restaurant where they had their lunch, could not provide detail about the three men. “ I was there on Friday afternoon when they supposedly ate at my place. But since we get a lot of customers, we did not notice anything amiss. It was only the next day that police came calling and asked me about three men who had escaped. It was on Sunday morning that I learnt that the three men were actually terrorists,” said Surinder Kumar.
Ironically the three men had escaped from a spot which was only a few hundred metres away from the Red Fort. In 2000, the Delhi Police had arrested them for causing blasts in waste bins just outside the monument.
The Union Home Ministry made it clear that accountability would be fixed and disciplinary action will be taken against officers responsible for the lapse.
The police have announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for information leading to the arrest of each of the three terrorists. Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the escape incident.
The Union home ministry made it clear that accountability would be fixed and disciplinary action will be taken against officials responsible for the lapse.
—Agencies