Anti-terrorist measures by security forces have prevented a "spectacular" attack by a Pakistan-based militant group in Bombay, Indian police said today.
Police killed two suspected members of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed group in a park in New Delhi last night, hours after explosives were seized in two separate raids.
The actions in the capital came after paramilitary soldiers in Indian-controlled Kashmir said they killed the Jaish-e-Mohammed head of Indian operations, Ghazi Baba.
He is suspected of being the mastermind of an attack on India's Parliament in December 2001 that brought nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan close to war.
"The exact target would have been disclosed to them by Jaish headquarters a short time before the actual strike," police Joint Commissioner Mr Niraj Kumar said, referring to the suspected militants.
"It would have been something spectacular like VVIPs (very, very important persons), symbols of national importance like the India Gate and Red Fort, something like that."
Jaish-e-Mohammed is one of the most feared militant groups in India's Jammu-Kashmir state. It is among about a dozen groups fighting security forces to separate Kashmir from Indian control or to merge with Pakistan, India's western neighbour and rival.