Hours after the blasts in Varanasi, a suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant was shot dead in an encounter with the police in Gosaiganj area on the outskirts of the city early Wednesday morning.

Police identified the militant as Salar alias Doctor and did not rule out his involvement in Tuesday's blasts at the Sankat Mochan temple and cantonment railway station in Varanasi, which claimed at least twenty lives.     

RDX and some detonators were from his possession after the encounter with the Special Task Force, police sources said.

Sources said Salar, a Pakistani, was involved in the conspiracy to carry out a suicide attack at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun, which was foiled by the timely tip off by central security agencies. Police were on the lookout for him for quite some time, the sources said, adding that he was also involved in the Republic Day terrorist attack in Jaipur.

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