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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JPR who wrote (12437)	9/25/2002 9:16:38 AM
From: JPR	Respond to of 12475

Godhra revisited Two militants shot dead; Temple siege ends Gandhinagar, Sep 25 Commandos early Wednesday stormed the Akshardham temple in Gujarat and killed two gunmen, ending the bloody siege which left 30 devotees dead. Two Gujarat policemen and one NSG commando died in the operation while three commandos were injured. While earlier reports from police put the number of slain terrorists at three, Chief Minister Narendra Modi said only two ultras entered the temple complex and both were killed. At around 7:30 am, police declared the operation over and allowed reporters into the sprawling Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar. Two AK-47 rifles and Australian-made grenades were recovered from the temple complex which has suffered partial damage. Police said the terrorists were aged between 20 and 25 years, and were wearing Army-type trousers, T-shirt, sports shoes and caps. A letter, written in Urdu, was reportedly recovered from the pocket of one of them as the security forces took control of the bullet-riddled bodies around 7.30 a.m. However, the identity of the militants is yet to be established. The raid to flush out the militants, who stormed the Akshardham temple Tuesday afternoon and sprayed devotees with automatic gunfire, began soon after midnight. Sporadic bursts of gunfire were heard throughout the operation, while the night air was shattered by the sounds of at least a dozen grenade blasts. Some 75 devotees who had been trapped in the complex during the night were freed during the operation. The Akshardham temple late Tuesday had resembled a battle zone, with rescuers stretchering dead and injured to waiting ambulances while heavily-armed police and soldiers flooded into the area. By midnight, more than 600 worshippers had been rescued from the complex, officials said, adding some 75 were treated with gunshot or shrapnel injuries. Local hospitals were overloaded, with many patients being forced to wait bleeding in hallways. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who cut short a vacation in the Maldives, warned that India would not tolerate such attacks. A high alert, meanwhile, was sounded in New Delhi and in the states of West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharastara and Tamil Nadu and security was stepped up at key Hindu temples countrywide, officials said. Among those killed by the militants, 13 belonged to Delhi, Mumbai and Rajasthan, Civil Hospital sources said. Five bodies were yet to be identified. Nearly 75 of the injured were treated at Gandhinagar. Of them, 25 were rushed to the Civil Hospital at Ahmedabad. The state continues to be on a red alert. The Congress has called for a Gujarat Bandh today, while the VHP has declared a Bharat Bandh tomorrow to protest the terror attack.Agencies