Gujrat police today claimed to have foiled another attempt to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi by intercepting a car and gunning down its four occupants, including a woman in her twenties. Police said they were Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives who had driven to Ahmedabad from Mumbai. A Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) team, which carried out the operation on ‘‘specific intelligence’’, intercepted the blue Tata Indica on a deserted stretch of the Himmatnagar highway, near the Kotarpur water works. DCB sharpshooters forced the car to a halt by shooting at its tyres. One of the four in the car jumped out and opened fire, police said. They were killed after an exchange of fire which lasted almost 30 minutes. Police recovered an AK-56, two pistols, three Kalashnikov magazines, 81 rounds of ammunition, a satellite phone, Rs 2.06 lakh in cash and over 10 kg of chemicals used for making low-intensity bombs. ‘‘We took cover behind our vehicle, so we were saved,’’ said Assistant Commissioner Narendra Amin who led one of the teams. Two of the four killed have been identified as Pakistani nationals: Jishan Johar alias Jaanbaz of Kalerbadi in Gujranwala and Amjadali Akbarali Rana alias Salim of Haveli Diwan in Sargoda. The third was identified as one Javed from Pune who owned the car. Police said the woman hadn’t been identified. She was carrying an identity card of Khalsa College, Mumbai. Intelligence sources later told The Indian Express that the woman had been identified as Ishrat Zaha and that Javed was a convert whose original name was Pranesh Pillai. The sources said Ishrat and Javed had been recruited to provide logistic support to the Pakistanis. Joint Commissioner P P Pandey said: ‘‘The two fidayeen reached Mumbai by infiltrating through Kashmir and were joined by the other two operatives to target Modi. We’ll now investigate the Maharashtra link, whether they also had local contacts.’’ This was the third Modi assassination plot uncovered by the police in recent times.
