Delhi Police and Army began a parallel probe on Saturday at the Red Fort, where Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba militants killed three persons on Friday night. The search operation began on Saturday morning and the entire area was being combed, Joint Commissioner, northern range, Ajay Chaddha said. The area had been sealed off and forensic experts summoned to probe into the apparent security lapse, he said. Abdullah Thakur, a civilian and Uma Shankar, a combatant barber with the Rajputana Rifles died on the spot while Naik Ashok succumbed to injuries when he was being rushed to the Army Base Hospital. The militants, Chaddha said, struck first at the supply point depot killing Abdullah, a civilian employee, at 9:05 pm and as Uma Shankar rushed to the spot, he too was shot at. They then walked into a barrack and opened fire indiscriminately on Naik Ashok and soon took shelter in the bushes around the musuem inside the Mughal architecture. As the army reaction team arrived, the ultras destroyed the light bulbs and escaped under the cover of darkness after scaling down the rear wall, he said. No arrest has been made so far.
After an unprecedented security dragnet was thrown both within and outside the historic red fort, even a few residents of the fort were not allowed entry and were forced to stay in the open on Friday.
“Helpless as we are, we spent the night in the open braving the biting chill,” Santosh said. Santosh`s father Ashok Kumar also shared his son`s complaint saying such a thing had never happened earlier. Bureau Report