Al-Umma jehadis were planning to target Tirupati shrine during Navratri

After getting special inputs, a joint team of Tamil Nadu Police and AP police launched the search operation in Puthur town and then zeroed in on the building.

During the search, police found a pistol and two bombs, but when they tried to nab the terrorists, they attacked the policemen with knives.

After a seven-hour long encounter, the Al-Ummah jihadis Bilal Malik and Panna Ismail were finally nabbed.

The encounter took long because the joint team feared the terrorists may have stored a large amount of explosives inside the building. Police used teargas shells to flush out the terrorists.