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Gunned-down terrorist suspects were plotting Mumbai attack

Other News Materials 12 March 2008 13:13 (UTC +04:00)

(dpa) - Two suspected terrorists gunned down by police in India's financial hub of Mumbai were planning a major attack in the city, police said Wednesday.

The two men were killed Tuesday evening by officers of Maharashtra state's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), a senior police official said. Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra.

A Bangladeshi passport, 2 kilogrammes of RDX explosives, two firearms and fake currency notes were recovered from the two men, the ATS official said.

The police laid a trap for the two men in the Thane district after a tip-off. When challenged, the suspected terrorists opened fire and were killed when the police squad retaliated, he said.

"These men are believed to have links with the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami," the ATS official said, referring to an Islamic militant group based in Bangladesh and also known as the HUJI. "Our information so far indicates they came here to carry out an attack and were in the process of doing a survey."

The HUJI was banned by Bangladesh in 2005 and is on the United States terrorist organizations list.

Indian police blamed an HUJI cell based in Bangladesh for the serial bomb blasts in the Indian temple town of Varanasi in 2006, which killed 30 people.

The police are also investigating the organization's links with two bomb blasts in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on August 21, in which more than 40 people died.

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