Indian police said they shot dead on Friday the man behind last week's serial blasts that killed 23 people in India's capital. Bashir alias Atif, had planned the Indian Mujahideen's attack in Delhi as well attacks on the western cities of Ahmedabad and Jaipur, where a total of more than 100 people were killed, police said. “Atif is the kingpin in the Delhi blasts,” police chief Y.S Dadwal told Reuters. A police team killed two suspected militants, including Atif in south Delhi, during a raid for suspects in connection with the bombings, in which a highly decorated police officer was seriously injured. He later died in hospital, police said. “Atif planned and executed the bomb attacks in Delhi with the help of 10 men,” Karnail Singh, an officer involved in the ra id, told reporters. At least five militants were hiding in an apartment but two fled from the spot and one was caught, he said. They seized a rifle and two laptops, which experts were now examining. Police said the raid was carried out after a suspect arrested earlier gave them information on militants hiding in New Delhi. Singh said Atif was a close associate of Abdul Subhan Qureshi, alias Tauqeer, a computer expert and member of a banned Islamic students' group, who has been named as one of the main suspects in the New Delhi attacks. “The people who planned the attack wanted someone to plant the bombs, and they found one in Atif, capable of manufacturing bombs and executing the plan perfectly,” Singh said. Authorities claimed Friday's raid marked significant progress in investigations into the Delhi bombings. More than 100 people were also wounded in the blasts. A group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks this year, saying they were avenging “atrocities” against Muslims in India. Atif, who was heading one of their modules, had traveled to Ahmedabad and Jaipur to carry out the blasts and returned to New Delhi last month, police chief Dadwal said. Earlier, a Reuters photographer said policemen armed with automatic rifles and pistols had surrounded the apartment where the militants were hiding next to a mosque in a crowded south Delhi neighbourhood. Witnesses said they heard shooting for about half an hour, sending onlookers and neighbours running for cover. The government announced on Thursday several measures to tighten its policing and intelligence to plug what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said were “vast gaps” in the intelligence apparatus. It plans to recruit thousands more policemen and set up a new counter-terrorism center. But Muslim groups have accused the police of rounding up innocent people in the past. On Friday, the All India Minorities' Forum raised doubts about Friday's police raid and demanded a judicial inquiry into the killings.
