Cops release sketches of terror suspects

“We have released the sketches of the three men. We had been hunting for these four persons for the last 48 hours, and about a 1,000 police officers were privy to the information. Now that it has been leaked by a police officer, the entire operation has been jeopardised. We are making the search public, so that if citizens recognise the suspects from their sketches, they can immediately inform us,” said Joint Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, KL Prasad. The recce came to light when a taxi driver approached the Dadar police, and informed that that he had taken the four suspects to the Mahim dargah, the Haji Ali dargah, Mahalaxmi temple, JJ Hospital and Hilton Towers on October 22 and 23, for Rs 2,000 per day. He said that their movements seemed suspicious.

“We already have high security at important spots across the city, and these have been beefed up further. Detection squads, marshals, patrol vans and policemen in plainclothes are on the job. The Anti Terrorist Squad and Crime Branch are also on the lookout. So far, we know very little about the four suspects, who may have been fidayeen terrorists. Their sketches have been circulated amongst policemen,” said Prasad.

According to the police, the elderly Muslim taxi driver who volunteered to share the information told them that the four suspects spoke in hushed voices, and that they spoke a north Indian dialect of Hindi.

He suspected them to be Kashmiri. “Now that news of their recce is out, the common practice would be for their leader to order them to go underground. It will be very hard to find them, unless they make silly mistakes and take unnecessary chances. However, we are making all efforts and investigations are in progress,” said Prasad.