Cop shot dead near Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI: A policeman was shot dead and two more injured by unidentified people on a motorcycle in Hyderabad on Friday. The city is under high alert after the incident in which the police have not ruled out terrorist involvement.

The incident took place on Friday evening in Shahali Banda, which is very close to the Charminar and Mecca Masjid in the old city area. Agencies quoted eye witness accounts as saying that two persons on a motorcycle fired on a police picket. The police patrol was in the area as part of security arrangements ahead of the third anniversary of the Mecca Masjid blasts on May 18. The assailants escaped after firing at policemen.

Andhra Pradesh special police constable Ramesh died while being shifted to the Osmania Hospital. Two other policemen were being nursed for injuries. Hyderabad police commissioner A K Khan said the city police was examining witnesses. ”It seems one or two rounds were fired at him (the constable). Who did it and in what context, we are examining it,” Mr Khan said.

The city has been on a terror alert post the Bangalore blast last month. Police has mounted search operations over the last fortnight and made arrests. Police had arrested an alleged terror suspect belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba on May 3. The 34-year-old Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq is accused of plotting explosions in busy areas of the city.

It is not clear whether there is a link between that arrest and Friday’s firing. However, the police believe the incident to be the handiwork of terror suspect Viqaruddin, being investigated in connection with the killing of another policeman in a similar incident on the second anniversary of the Mecca Masjid blasts last year. Two policemen were injured on December 3, 2008, in an attempt to arrest the terror suspect, who managed to escape with two alleged accomplices. Mr Khan confirmed that Mr Viqaruddin was a suspect in the case. “He is also one of the suspects we are looking for and there are others too,” the commissioner said.

There were communal clashes in the old city area of Hyderabad that left three persons dead in March. Curfew had been imposed in the area for nearly a fortnight then. Mr Khan, however, said it was not correct to link this incident with communal tension in the area. “After recent communal clashes, we have been operating pickets and the city police is in full alert,” the commissioner said.

The bomb blast during Friday prayers in the 17th century Mecca Masjid mosque on May 18, 2007, had killed nine people. Five people died in the subsequent police firing on protesters outside the mosque.