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Even as the Andhra Pradesh Special Police constable U Ramesh was cremated in his home district of Chittoor on Saturday, Hyderabad city police was continuing its massive search operations to nab the three terrorists involved in Friday's firing on a police picket in old city.
Security was being further tightened with fresh warning from Intelligence Bureau of possible trouble on May 18 -- the third anniversary of the bomb blast in Mecca Masjid and the subsequent police firing.
According to the informed sources, IB has not ruled more terrorist attacks on the anniversary day. Police were putting up barricades and check posts in and around the city and more armed pickets were being deployed in the sensitive areas, especially near the religious places. Vehicles were being searched and the pedestrians were being frisked.
Constable U Ramesh, who died on Friday evening after three scooter borne militants opened fire at him in Shah Ali Banda area, was cremated with full police honours at his native village of Guttavaripalle in Chittoor district on Saturday morning. Hyderabad Joint Commissioner of Police Krupanand Tripathi Ujela was among the senior police officers who attended his last rite. Earlier, his body was taken from Hyderabad to Kadapa, the headquarters of 11th battalion of APSP where tributes were paid to him.
Hyderabad city police commissioner Adbul Khayyum Khan, after reviewing the situation with his colleagues, told mediapersons that investigation in to the terrorist attack was handed over to the Special Investigation Team. "Special teams have been constituted to nab the culprits," he said.
Police have picked up about 20 youth from Muslim dominated old city of Hyderabad for questioning. They include youth arrested in the past on terror related charges but acquitted by the court.
The investigations were focussed on Viqaruddin Ahmad, a militant wanted in connection with two earlier attacks on the police including the one on May 18 last year on the second anniversary of blast.
Viqar is a suspected operative of terror organisations like the Lashkar-e-Tayieba and the Harkatul Jehad-e-Islami, and was absconding for the last three years. But his father Mohammed Ahmad denied the police charges and alleged that some policemen and the media were making baseless allegations against his son. "His only fault is that he was running away from the police fearing for his life," he said. He denied that he had links with any terror organisations.
Police investigations were also focussed on a CD, which the assailants left behind at the scene of Friday's incident.
Revenge attack:
A largely unknown organisation Tehreek-e-Ghalba-e-Islam (Movement for supremacy of Islam) has owned the responsibility for the attack. The assailants left behind a CD, containing a letter in Urdu, warning more attacks on the police in future.
"This is the revenge for the killing of Muslims in police firing near Mecca Masjid on May 18, 2007. If the government of Andhra Pradesh wants to avoid such revenge attacks, it should arrest all those police men and officers who were responsible for the firing, and for ordering the firing, they should be given death sentence. Otherwise our revenge will continue and oppressor will be punished, Inshallah," the warning letter read.
The letter was signed by Mohammed Faseehuddin, Ameer, TGI.
Though the police had tightened the security arrangements in the city to meet any eventuality on May 18, the militants took the police by surprise by striking four days in advance.
Militants had carried out a similar attack on May 18 last year, killing a policeman and injuring another.
City police is under sharp criticism for its failure in preventing terrorist attacks despite getting a warning from the intelligence agencies.
Meanwhile, member of Lok Sabha from Hyderabad and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi wondered how the police picket was without any arms when the terrorists targeted it. "At least after last year's experience, in which unarmed policemen were made the target, policemen should have been armed this time," he said.
Strongly condemning the incident, Owaisi regretted that media was using the incident to spread hatred against the minority community. "Once again Muslims as a whole were being blamed for the incident creating hatred among Hindus against them. This is not good for the city and the country," he said.