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NEW DELHI: Sleuths of Delhi Police 's Special Cell and an intelligence agency have apprehended at least three sharpshooters, including a highly trained Afghan national, who had been tasked by Pakistan's ISI to assassinate two prominent political leaders before Republic Day, sources said.

Intelligence sources confirmed to TOI that the mastermind of this operation was identified as Pak-based underworld don Rasool Khan 'Party', who was allegedly among the key plotters in assassination of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya in 2003. Party is considered a key member of the D-Company . The Afghan shooter was identified as Wali Raja. The two other suspects were identified as Riyazuddin and Sonu. At least two of these were picked up from near Nizamuddin area of southeast Delhi and weapons seized, a source said. The third suspect belongs to Kerala. The police have also recovered an iPhone , which is being analyzed. Delhi has been been put on alert, police sources said.

The plot was busted after an agency intercepted a call exchanged between Rasool Party and a person from south India while they were talking about procurement of weapons and two "high-value" targets. This module, sources said, was being tracked since mid-December and the cops swung into action when it was confirmed that the killers were in the end-stage of the plan.

The operation comes a few months after the Intelligence Bureau released an alert about ISI using D-Company men to carry out targeted killings before the general elections. The cropping up of Rasool Party's name has alarmed agencies as he had gone underground for close to a decade after fleeing from India in in early 2000. "Party was the Man Friday of underworld don and D Company's man in Gujarat, Abdul Latif Sheikh. With help from ISI, Party had escaped to Pakistan after Latif was killed in an encounter with police in 1998," an officer said.

Party is said to have masterminded the travel of 11 Ahmedabad-based and five Hyderabad-based youths to terror camps in Bangladesh after the 2002 riots. This module had subsequently provided local logistical support in the killing of Haren Pandya on March 23, 2003, sources said.

