The Lucknow police, along with Special Task Force (STF) cops, shot dead a Dawood Ibrahim associate in a daylight “encounter” on Wednesday after he reportedly tried to escape from their custody. The reported encounter took place on Jail Road at around 12 noon when the police were taking Noora Afgani to court for a hearing. Afgani, a native of Baluchistan, Pakistan, was believed to be close to Dawood and was arrested in Lucknow in connection with a fake passport case in October 2000. Incidentally, Afgani had escaped from police custody a number of times before and was last arrested by the STF in November 2005. According to the police, they were forced to open fire when four unidentified miscreants attacked them in an attempt to whisk away Afgani. Three policemen, including a Sub-Inspector and two constables, were reportedly injured in the attack.“He (Afgani) was being taken in a Tata Sumo and a vehicle each of the STF and the local police was escorting the jeep. As soon as the cavalcade reached the Jail Road crossing, four motorcycle-borne youths hurled bombs on the van and also opened fire,” said Vikram Singh, Director General of Police, UP. S-I Bhanu Pratap Singh, who was injured in the “shootout”, said it was a bullet from his service revolver that killed Afgani. “A bomb was first thrown at the left-side rear-window glass. There was a lot of smoke and we could not see anything. Taking advantage of the confusion, Afgani, who was sitting on the rear seat with the constables, jumped out of the jeep. As I got down, a bullet hit me on my left thigh,” said Bhanu. He claimed that besides Afgani, the attackers were injured when the policemen fired back. “We trailed blood to a good stretch from the spot of the encounter,” added the Sub-Inspector.The police claim to have recovered a “Bihar-made” pistol from the spot of the alleged encounter. “It was handed over to Afgani by the attackers and he too fired several rounds at the policemen with it,” said Vikram Singh. He added that Afgani earlier planned to escape from the jail and the police had received information about the same. The police have sealed all the borders of the city and vehicles are being checked to catch those who carried out the attack. Afgani was accused of playing an active role in the escape of two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, Maqsood and Sayeed, from the district court this February. Afgani was believed to have arranged the weapons used by the militants to flee from the court and the two remain untraceable to date.
