Hyderabad, May 15: Syed Viqaruddin and his associates — Suleman, Amjad and Junaid – are the key suspects behind the shootout near Voulga Cafe in Hussaini Alam today. All four are believed to have links with the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Director General of Police RR Girish Kumar told mediapersons that Viqar is a suspect and a hunt is on for him.
Teams are searching for him and the possible places where he could stay.
However, investigators believe that Viqar, whom the police has been hunting for the last three years, may have planned the operation but may not have executed it himself. “His associates could have executed it.
Viqar’s movements were last traced in Gulbarga in Karnataka and then in Mangalore and Kerala. There were reports that he fled to Bangladesh this year. Last year in December, there were certain inputs suggesting his movement in and around the city too,’’ sources said.
All three had escaped from the police after they opened fire at Counter-Intelligence sleuths in Santoshnagar in December 2008. Viqar was an active member of the Saidabad-based fundamentalist outfit Darsgah-Jihad-OShahadat (DJS).
During the shooting at Falaknuma on May 18 last year, wherein twomotorcycle borne assailants opened fire at two policemen killing a home guard, the culprits left behind a hand-written pamphlet in Urdu bearing the signature of one Fasiuddin and the name of a little known outfit Tehreek-e-Galba-Islam was scribbled on the paper. The note stated that policemen were targetted to avenge the police firing that took place soon after bomb blasts rocked Mecca Masjid on May 18, 2007. They also warned that those behind the police firing would die.
–Agencies