Another suspect killed, security ring for funeral

One more Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant, suspected to be behind the Sai Baba temple blast, was killed in a police encounter at Karimnagar di...

One more Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant, suspected to be behind the Sai Baba temple blast, was killed in a police encounter at Karimnagar district today.

Mohammad Imran alias Aziz alias Khalid, 25, was gunned down in the wee hours. A pistol, spare magazine and a passport were recovered from him. The passport was in the name of Aziz and police suspect that Imran was trained in Pakistan.

Security has been beefed up for his funeral, as violence had erupted during the burial of his associate, Mohammad Azam, yesterday. Police had to fire in the air to quell the mob, which pelted stones at their vehicles and shouted slogans against them. Azam had been killed in an encounter at Rangareddy district.

Two companies of Rapid Action Force, three platoons of State Police and five platoons of Armed Reserved Police have been deployed in the ‘‘sensitive areas’’, police said.

Director General of Police P. Ramulu said a patrol party spotted Imran at Rekurthi crossroads last night when he was moving about suspiciously in a cycle. He opened fire when the policemen tried to stop him. The team returned the fire, killing him on the spot.

According to state and Central intelligence reports, Imran was LeT’s south zone in-charge and was directing activities in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamilnadu. He had fled from his Malakpet residence after Thursday’s temple blast, which claimed the life of one woman devotee and left 21 others injured.

Imran had undergone extensive training in preparing and handling explosives for 122 days in Pakistan last year. He went to Saudi Arabia in January and from there to Pakistan in September, the DGP said. ‘‘He was one of the 3,000 youths who received training near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan,’’ the DGP said quoting intelligence reports.

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‘‘Imran, along with Azam, planned to create a communal strife in the country by planting explosives in temples and demolishing statues,’’ he said.

Asked if there were any more LeT members in the state, the DGP refused to reveal more details. ‘‘First, we succeeded in quashing the leadership of the banned outfit and now we will try to trace the followers if there are any,’’ he added.