While official agencies have so far denied presence of Taliban or Al Qaida in India, the Mumbai police crime branch has given this information in a reply to an RTI application on encounters carried out since 1980.
The reply has stated that the crime branch killed one Adnan alias Mohammed Khaleel alias Abu Salem and an unidentified militant belonging to 'Al Qaida' in an encounter on June 16, 2004 at Andheri.
It also said in the same year, on July 7, the property cell of crime branch shot dead one Shakil Ahmed Ali Maulana of 'Taliban' in an encounter near Worli.
In its encounter data for the year 2004, the Mumbai police has said that the crime branch shot dead 15 goons at different places in an around the western metropolis, between January 7 to December 22.
The RTI reply received by Mumbai-based activist Chetan Kothari reveals that more than 1,000 gangsters of different underworld groups were gunned down by the Mumbai police in the last 28 years in shootouts.
