AHMEDABAD, Oct 13: An agent of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), allegedly sent to Gujarat to assassinate Union Home Minister L K Advani and Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, was gunned down by an escorting Anti-Terrorist Squad commando when he tried to snatch a carbine from the latter here late on Monday night.Abu Qasam alias Ajmal, aged about 21, was picked up by an ATS team, on a tip-off, from Visat petrol pump in Sabarmati around 7 pm on Monday and brought to ATS headquarter for interrogation, Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya told reporters on Tuesday. He announced an award of Rs 1 lakh for the ATS team.During interrogation, Ajmal disclosed that he was a member of Lashkar-e-Toiba, a terrorist group operating from Pakistan, which is believed to be responsible for bomb explosions in Delhi, Hyderabad and other metropolis. Ajmal, police said, was sent to Gujarat by the launching commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Azam Chima, to eliminate Advani and Patel.He had crossed into India from the Jesalmer border with the help of Pakistani rangers and had been staying at a clandestine place near Gandhinagar for the past two-and-half months. He was given a cellphone number of another ISI agent, Bablu alias Osman, who was the key man in the assassination plot as he possessed the stocks of research and development explosives (RDX), arms and ammunition. However, no such thing was seized by police from Ajmal.Around 11.15 pm on Monday, Ajmal was taken from the ATS interrogation room to the office of the Special Inspector General of Police (Operations) in the same premises for making a long-distance call (number 9820458403) to contact Bablu. Curiously, he was not handcuffed.Ajmal snatched the carbine of escorting commando P S Raval in a bid to escape. But another commando Dinesh Jambu fired three rounds from his carbine, one of which hit Ajmal in the chest. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Civil Hospital.Police said that during interrogation, Ajmal had revealed that he was trained in Afghanistan and had been closely monitoring the movements of VIPs in Gandhinagar. He also revealed his contacts in Jodhpur and was trying to make local contacts too, police said, adding a diary, containing contact and phone numbers of his associates in a code language, was recovered. The body was sent for a post-mortem this afternoon.
