Four police constables and a private security guard were killed and 20 other people injured when, on 22 January 2002,

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

militants attacked an American cultural centre in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The centre houses a library, the American embassy's public affairs office, a press section and a cultural wing. Two motorcycle-borne attackers, draped in shawls, sped up to the American Centre building at about 6:15

IST Ist or IST may refer to: Information Science and Technology * Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology * Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan * Graduate School ...

, refusing to stop at checkpoints and began shooting at police guards from an AK-47 assault rifle who returned fire. Four of the dead were Kolkata police constables while the one of the dead belonged to a private security agency Group Four. The constables killed in the attack were identified as Pijush Sarker, Ujjal Burman, Suresh Hembram and Anup Mondal and belonged to the 5th battalion of

Kolkata Armed Police Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. Two groups claimed responsibility for the attack. A

Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي, ''Ḥarkat al-Jihād al-Islāmiyah'', meaning "Islamic Jihad Movement", HuJI) is a Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist Jihadist organisation affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Talib ...

(HUJI) member, Farhan Malik owned responsibility and said the attack was in protest against "the evil empire of America", while another person claiming to be a member of Asif Raza Commandos, a gang with ties to radical Islamic groups, claimed responsibility. Malik was also wanted in connection with a case of kidnapping a Kolkata shoe baron Partha Pratim Roy Barman, who was later released on a ransom of 37.5 million. Four days after the attack, two men — Salim and Zahid — were killed in an encounter with a Delhi police team in Hazaribagh in

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

. The police had come to know about the involvement of Aftab Ansari in the American Centre attack from the dying declarations of Salim and Zahid. On 23 January 2002, Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Malik, prime suspect in the attack was arrested in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

. On 9 February 2002, he was deported to India. Ansari was in possession of Pakistani travel documents with his passport number J872142, being issued in Lahore in February, 2000, in the name of Shafiq Mohammad Rana. On 28 April 2005, a Special CBI Court found Aftab Ansari and six others guilty for the attack. Aftab Ansari and Jamiluddin Nasir were sentenced to death under Section 121 of the

Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established in ...

for waging war against the state. The others sentenced along with Ansari are: Rehan Alam, Musharat Hussain, Adil Hasan, Hasrat Alam and Shakir Akhtar. On 5 February 2010, the

Calcutta High Court The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located in B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court buildi ...

upheld the death sentence of Aftab Ansari and Jamiluddin Nasir but commuted the capital punishment awarded to three others to seven years imprisonment.

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The arrest of Aftab AnsariAftab Ansari exposes spread of Dawood tentacles
{{DEFAULTSORT:American cultural centre attack 21st-century mass murder in India Attacks in India in 2002 Mass murder in 2002 American cultural centre in Kolkata, 2002 terrorist attack American cultural centre in Kolkata, 2002 terrorist attack Crime in Kolkata 2000s in West Bengal Attacks on diplomatic missions in India Attacks in India Islamic terrorism in India

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