Militant who ‘conspired to kill’ Modi shot in ‘encounter’

An alleged militant, who the police claim was on a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, was shot dead in Ahmedabad on Monda...

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An alleged militant, who the police claim was on a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, was shot dead in Ahmedabad on Monday morning. Sadiq Jamal Mehtar, 25, who belonged to Bhavnagar, was killed when officials of Detection of Crime Branch fired at him ‘‘in self-defence.’’

In October, 2002, a Jaiesh-e-Mohammed militant Samirkhan Pathan, who was also in town to ‘‘kill Modi’’, was killed in an encounter.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) P P Pandey later said that the DCB had received inputs from central intelligence agencies about Mehtar’s arrival in the city on December 24 and plans to kill Modi, VHP international general secretary Pravin Togadia and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani.

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Police sources in Mumbai say that Mehtar was linked to India’s most wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Police sources in Mumbai told The Indian Express that Mehtar started working for Tarique Parveen, a Dawood-aide, as a domestic help before he moved to Dubai.

He was assigned to task of looking after Parveen’s two daughters in south Mumbai. Parveen is considered close to Ibrahim’s right-hand-man Chhota Shakeel and escaped to Dubai in the aftermath of the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993. He was looking after the gang’s finances with associate Salim Chiplun alias Sikandar.

While Parveen decided to stay back in Dubai, Shakeel, Chiplun and Fayeem Machmach followed their mentor to Karachi. Mehtar joined Parveen in Dubai in September last year. Police sources say that Mehtar was introduced to a ‘maulana’ in one of the shrines in Dubai. He was indoctrinated to spread the ‘message of jehad’.