Terror casts a shadow over festival of lights

This time, though, the police appeared well-armed with intelligence. Sources said that intercepts of conversations between terrorists had revealed that their focus would be on attacking ordinary people at busy places of worship and trade in the capital in the run-up to Diwali.

‘‘Snatches of conversation intercepted about a fortnight ago had revealed that at least two to three fidayeen modules had reached the capital’’, said a senior security official.

Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani — who said the terrorists ‘‘seemed to be Pakistanis’’ — confirmed the tip-off. ‘‘We had prior information that these terrorists were looking for targets during Diwali.’’

The incident occurred around 7-30 p.m., when a Delhi Police team challenged and gunned down the terrorists when they were on their way from the basement parking lot at Ansal Plaza to the main shopping floors upstairs.

The militants were carrying an AK-56 rifle and two magazines in a black sports bag and also had two Chinese pistols and an Eicher map of Delhi. Officials said that the two, aged around 22 years, appeared suspicious when they emerged out of a white Maruti and on being challenged by the waiting police officials, they started firing.

They were shot down with only one policeman suffering injuries, but the potential for damage was immense. Ansal Plaza is crowded on most days; today, it was full to overflowing and could have been a repeat of Akshardham — there are similarities with that attack.

‘‘Initially we had received information that their target would be a busy market place. Then it narrowed down to South Extension or Ansal Plaza and, this evening, we zeroed down on the latter,’’ said Joint commissioner of police (Special Cell) Neeraj Kumar.

A check of the Maruti they were travelling in revealed that the militants had marked three locations on the Eicher map: Hudco Place, Lajpat Nagar and Sarojini Nagar. Some documents and a second bag containing clothes and a cellphone charger have also been recovered from the car.

The bodies of the two militants have been sent to the AIIMS for post-mortem. A PMO spokesman said that there would be no change in the Prime Minister’s scheduled visit to Cambodia tomorrow morning.