M A I N   N E W S

Owner of terrorist den nabbed
Tribune News Service

However a source said that there was no decision taken whether to arrest the sympathizers as sometimes this would lead the security agencies nowhere. In fact, the police are confining themselves to a wait-and-watch approach to follow these sympathizers and break their entire network.

Terrorist fury shortcircuited
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 17
A catastrophe was prevented in Parliament House on December 13 by the sheer absent-mindedness of the terrorists.

Secret video footage of surveillance cameras fitted on Parliament House gates shows that the terrorists had succeeded in laying out a 25-metre-long (nearly 90 feet-long) wire from gate 11 to gate 9. The wire was connected to some 20 kg of RDX, put inside a metal trunk which had been dragged out of the white Ambassador car the terrorists had come in.

The video footage was specially screened for Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan on December 13 night, sources said.

The other end of the wire was to be connected with a source to detonate the RDX. It is common knowledge that RDX by itself cannot do any harm, whether you eat it up or burn it. RDX can be exploded only when detonated and there are only two ways to detonate it: electrical and electronic, sources who are an authority on RDX reveal.

The terrorists made no attempt to use the electronic option. This is borne out by the fact that they were not carrying remote control. They knew that Parliament House is a VVIP area where frequency jammers can be activated at the drop of a hat. Remote control of an explosive is naturally rendered inoperational when frequency jammer is activated.

Terrorists had kept the electrical detonation of RDX handy in their car. And most probably the ignition was also kept on.

All that the terrorists had to do was to connect the other end of the RDX wire to an electricity-generating point in the car. But in the hurry, one of the terrorists got confused and banged the car door closed, little realising that the wire was still inside the car. As a result, the wire snapped.

The video footage, according to the sources, showed that other terrorists hurled abuses at the erring terrorist. Then after a few seconds, they started running towards gate 1, firing indiscriminately while running.

The sources said the ultras had planned three scenarios: (i) blow up Parliament; (ii) if not possible, get inside and take politicians hostages or kill as many as possible; and (iii) if even this was not possible then to fan out in all directions and inflict the maximum-possible damage. Terrorists failed in all three objectives.

Afzal identifies bodies of terrorists

New Delhi, December 17
Mohammad Afzal, mastermind of Thursday’s Parliament House attack, today identified the bodies of the five terrorists who were gunned down by the security forces, clearing the way for post-mortem which began this afternoon.

Afzal, who was brought to the mortuary of the Sucheta Kripalani Hospital around 12.30, confirmed the identification of the bodies, after which the long-awaited post mortem of bodies started around 1 p.m., the police said.

The SHO of Parliament Street Police Station, Mr Gurbaksh Mehta told newspersons here that Afzal took little time in identifying the bodies of the five terrorists — Mohammad, Hamza, Raja, Haider and Rana. UNI