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Two terrorists killed; temple siege ends, toll 28

National Security Guards commandos killed two militants holed up in the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar on Wednesday morning ending the siege, which began at around 1720 hours on Tuesday.

The terrorists had killed 28 persons before they were shot dead.

There were conflicting reports about the number of terrorists with the police saying that there were three of them, while Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the temple complex after the operation ended, said only two militants were killed.

Modi said a large quantity of ammunition had been recovered from the terrorists whose identities were not known.

"No organisation had claimed responsibility for the attack," he said.

He said the devotees who had been caught inside the temple during the stand off would be allowed to leave after identification.

Giving details of the operation, the commander of the NSG task force, Brigadier Ravi Sitapathy, said his unit was asked to mobilise at 1810 hours on Tuesday evening.

He said in cooperation with the Gujarat police his unit obtained the whereabouts of the terrorists holed up inside the temple complex, and entered it. But, he added, darkness prevented his men from making any headway against the terrorists, who kept on firing at the commandos.

He then gave orders to his men to wait for the day to break before mounting a fresh attack on the terrorists.

Officials said 17 hand grenades were also seized from the bodies of the slain terrorists.

The elite NSG, as well as Gurarat police lost one man each, NSG Director General T Mishra said. Among the six security personnel injured, three were NSG commandos, he added.

Mishra said the swiftly undertaken operation was not named, and had a three-pronged approach -- to protect the shrine, protect the people trapped inside the complex and eliminate the terrorists.

He said the 'type of adventurism' shown by the gunmen proved that they were 'well trained and well motivated'. Asked whether they could be local miscreants, Mishra said, "It does not seem to be."

He said the cooperation of personnel from the Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force and local police have helped undertake the mission swiftly.

He said militants had taken position at a vantage location in between Sachidanand hall and the shrine where the number of devotees was the most. "Their target was to cause maximum harm to the civilian population including women."

At least two live grenades were recovered from the temple complex even as NSG and other forces have thrown in a thick security blanket.

The temple steps and premises were stained with blood.

Inspector General of Police (Gandhinagar range) Pramod Kumar said the terrorists were in the age group of 22 to 25 and efforts were on to ascertain their identity.

The search is also on to find out if there are any more grenades or explosives left in the temple complex, he said.

According to a temple official, Nishid Acharya, the remaining 50 people who were trapped in the temple complex overnight were rescued after the end of the operations.

The names of the two security personnel killed are (NSG commando) Subedar Suresh and Arjun Singh of the Gujarat state police, rediff.com has learnt.

With inputs from Josy Joseph in Gandhinagar

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