Major temples were on terrorist map

Tamil Nadu police commandos yesterday stormed the gang’s hideout in M.S. Ramaiah Layout and gunned down five persons, including a woman. The deceased include Imam Ali (32), mastermind of the 1993 Chennai RSS office blast, and four of his associates — Manga Basha alias Anwar (35) of Tirunelveli, Mohammed Ibrahim (25) of Madurai, Seniyappa alias Saifulla (30) and his wife Yasmeen.

Apart from a large poster of Osama bin Laden which was found among Imam’s belongings, police recovered two maps, a map of India and another with pictures of South Indian temples and major bridges, from the hideout, sources said.

A telephone diary with numbers in coded format with English alphabets in place of numbers and a two-page letter written in Tamil were also found, the sources added. The telephone diary listed the numbers of some city police stations among others.

Police also recovered a cellphone, camera, photographs of the Imam’s associates and a ‘‘Wanted’’ poster published by Madurai police with shots of Imam and his gang members from the house. Imam was said to have a keen interest in arms and explosives after being trained by the Hizbul Mujahideen. Police found sketches of firearms and their working mechanism were from his hideout.

The bodies of the deceased have been handed over to their relatives who reached Bangalore today. While Iman’s brother-in-law Hamid Bakri, a madarsa principal, said that he condemned all acts of terrorism, Yasmeen’s brother Sikander refused to comment on the case.

Speaking to mediapersons in Sanjaynagar here, Bakri said he married Imam’s sister Khurshid Begum, a madarsa teacher, six months ago. ‘‘We condemn all terrorist acts. Every community has extremists who fight for their own vested interests like the RSS,’’ Bakri said.

Saying he was not aware of Imam’s activities, Bakri said: ‘‘Except in the newspapers, I had never seen Imam. He had not come home for the last seven years, not even to see his ailing mother Mumtaz Begum (50) who is under my care now.’’