Hyderabad: Tough evidence that the high-alert sounded recently for Hyderabad is not without reason.
The city is just days away from the third anniversary of the Mecca Masjid blast in which nine people had died. The police firing that followed killed another five.
And on Friday, at 4 pm, came a manifestation of the terror that seems to lurk beneath the surface at this time of year. Two unidentified men pulled up on a motorcycle and opened fire at a police checkpost in the Shali Banda area of the Old City.
Twenty six-year-old Ramesh Kumar died immediately. Two other policemen were injured. Kumar's wife, Shantamma, is also a constable.
"We are examining the witnesses. It seems one or two rounds were fired at him. Who did it and in what context, we are examining it," Hyderabad Police Commissioner A K Khan said.
According to latest reports, a CD has been recovered from the shootout site and it is being analysed.
The police suspect Friday's attack was planned by a terror suspect named Viqaruddin, wanted in two earlier shootouts that targeted the Hyderabad Police. The first took place in December 2008; a policeman died in the next one, on the second anniversary of the Mecca Masjid blast in 2009.
Viqaruddin, linked to fundamentalist groups like the Darsgah-Jihad-e-Shahadat (DJS) and TGI (Tehreek-Galba-e-Islam) is reported to have vowed to avenge the police firing following the Mecca Masjid blast that killed five people. Recent reports that the attack at the mosque was planned by a radical Hindu group has fuelled anger against the local police. In the days after the blast, 26 young Muslims were arrested. They were later acquitted of all charges. (
Read: Hyderabad blast: More proof they were wrongly arrested)
The police believe that Viqaruddin re-entered Hyderabad recently. The city and its surrounding districts have been put on high alert as the assailants are believed to still be in Hyderabad.