In a pre-dawn encounter today, the Nagpur police shot dead three heavily-armed militants trying to storm the RSS headquarters in the Mahal area of the old city.

Arms and ammunition have been recovered in huge numbers. The militants, who were wearing police uniform, came in a white Ambassador car with a red light on top. It was intercepted barely 100 metres away from the RSS building.

Barring Sangh national executive member Indresh Kumar, no RSS leader was present in the building at the time of the incident. RSS chief K S Sudarshan was in Kolkata and general secretary Mohan Bhagwat was out on a tour.

The police have not yet disclosed the identity of the militants though there’s talk of the police looking at the links of the trio to the Lashkar-e-Toiba. They also said they had information that the three men had been in Patna before coming to Nagpur. A shoe recovered from them was apparently purchased at a shop in Patna.

Nagpur police commissioner S P S Yadav’s only remark was “They were fidayeen.”

Around 3.45 am, the three militants, who were wearing Maharashtra Police uniform, came in a white Ambassador car—the registration number MH-20B-8979 turned out to be that of a two-wheeler registered in Aurangabad—from Gandhibagh, a locality near Mahal.

A vigilance squad, trained exclusively for the security of the RSS headquarters, was on a routine patrol when it spotted the car. The policemen became suspicious that though the car had a red light, there was no escort vehicle.

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