The unprecedented security in the national capital and its suburban townships ahead of Republic Day may have averted another 26/11 with the Uttar Pradesh police shooting dead two suspected Pakistani terrorists, both in their 20s, in a pre-dawn encounter on Sunday.

The police have recovered two AK-47 assault rifles, four magazines, 120 rounds of ammunition, five hand-grenades, nine suspected RDX rods, detonators, a Pakistani passport and Rs 18,000 in cash, Uttar Pradesh additional director general of police Brij Lal told reporters in Lucknow.

While the documents and the identities of the two men are being verified even as senior officers, India immediately upped the diplomatic ante, saying that Noida encounter was another example of terrorism emanating out of Pakistan. “It [the encounter] has once again underscored the persisting threat and the fact that there are individuals, there are organisations, which are targeting India and they are based in Pakistan,” minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma said.

Hours after the encounter, the police picked up four persons for questioning from Noida.

ADGP Lal told reporters that the anti-terrorism squad (ATS), which was on the trail of a terror module for the past one month, received a tip-off around midnight that two suspected terrorists were trying to enter New Delhi from Lalkuan in Ghaziabad in a white Maruti car.

The Noida police shot dead two suspected Pakistani terrorists in early on Sunday. The duo, armed with AK-47s and grenades, were on their way to Delhi on the eve of the Republic Day.

Uttar Pradesh  additional director general of police Brij Lal told reporters that they had received a tip-off about the movement of the suspected terrorists.

The police were checking vehicles proceeding towards Delhi around 2.15 am at the Amity outpost in Sector 97 of Noida when a white Maruti didn’t halt. Its occupants opened fire at policemen, Lal said.

The policemen retaliated and the firing continued for around 15 minutes. The two gunmen were seriously injured in the retaliatory fire even as an ATS constable, Vinod Kumar, also suffered bullet wounds, the ADGP said. Kumar is stated to be out of danger.

“One of the terrorists, while being taken to hospital identified himself as Farooq, a resident of Okara in Pakistan, and his companion as Abu Ismail from Rawalakot (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir),” Lal said, adding that the “passport recovered from Farooq bears the name Ali Ahmed.

Both the gunmen died on way to hospital, according to the police.

“We have also recovered a diary that has some information and phone numbers,” said an officer involved in the encounter.

Lal said the police were “probing what the terrorists were up, who were their local contacts” and two which outfit they belonged.