LUCKNOW/MUMBAI: An alleged Indian Mujahideen operative, Khursheed Alam Ansari, was shot dead by assailants in Nepal on Thursday, his death reviving memories of Mirza Dilshad Beg, an ISI operative of Indian origin killed in a similar manner in 1998.Alam, who had been working as the principal of a private school in Nepal’s Sunsari district, was shot in the head, abdomen and legs, just 7km from the Indian border, on Thursday morning. He died on the spot. Nepal police later identified him as a sleeper cell of IM, news agencies reported. Nepal police are yet to establish the assailants’ identity and motive. A constable was injured when he tried to stop the assailants and was shot at.“We understand Alam was instrumental in providing new identities to IM men who escaped from the Batla House encounter,” said inspector general Asim Arun, who heads UP’s anti-terror squad. In 1998, Mirza Dilshad Beg was killed in a similar manner as he was about to alight from his car at his house near the Indo-Nepal border.Mirza Dilshad Beg, who was killed in a similar manner in 1998, hailed from Deoria in eastern UP and fled to Nepal with ISI’s help, becoming an MP and even a minister there.Like Alam, Beg, close to Dawood Ibrahim, was also known for sheltering and providing safe passage to terror accused and members of the Mumbai underworld with ISI’s help.Although Chhota Rajan — a rival of Dawood Ibrahim — later claimed he was behind Beg’s killing as he spread terror in India with ISI’s help, it is widely believed even if Rajan had executed Beg, he couldn’t have without Indian agencies’ help.Sources in the UP ATS said Alam’s name had cropped up during the interrogation of Shehzad Ahmed, convicted for the murder of Delhi police special cell inspector Mohan Chand Sharma during the Batla House encounter. Shehzad had revealed that when he was on the run after the encounter, Alam had helped with fake IDs and voter cards and provided contacts of pointmen in Nepal.“He is known as Khursheed Alam. He was on the radar of Indian intelligence, suspected to be involved in the 1993 Mumbai blasts. The Indian government, about two decades ago, had requested Nepal government to hand him over but was denied,” an agency report quoted top police sources in Nepal.