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Arms haul in Gujarat, 6 gangsters gunned down

Gujarat Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya said on Tuesday that the involvement of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim has been detected in the Gandhinagar arms haul.

On Monday, the police recovered a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives after shooting dead six members of the Chhota Shakeel gang, in a three-storeyed house in Changez Pol, Dariyapur.

The cache included 10 kilograms of RDX and AK-47 rifles.

Pandya informed the assembly that besides Ibrahim, Shakeel and the six killed -- including the notorious Shirish Pawar -- many other gangsters were involved. These include Sairabanu Ishaq Sheikh and Ishaq Sheikh (both residents of Changez Pol, Ahmedabad), Shahid Khan, Rasul Party, Abdul Razzaq Abdul Wahab Sheikh (Ahmedabad), Abdul Samad Abdul Wahab, Ismael Abdul Wahab Sheikh, Moiuddin Abdul Wahab Sheikh (all residents of Sadar, Ahmedabad), and members of the Latif and Abdul Razzaq Abdul Wahab gangs.

Pandya said one of the six gangsters killed in the incident has been identified so far. Investigation was in progress.

The minister said the Ahmedabad police's crime branch had received a tip-off that members of the Bombay-based Shakeel gang were in the city to spread terror. When the police went to probe the leads, the gangsters opened fire from the second storey of the house. In self-defence, the police fired 37 rounds, killing the gangsters.

Reacting to the minister's statement, some Congress members tried to raise an issue of breach of propriety saying the Bharatiya Janata Party government should have first informed the Vidhan Sabha, which was in session, instead of going public about the incident. However, Speaker Dhirubhai Shah rejected the argument saying it was not a policy matter.

UNI

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