Akshardham attack: 3 get death sentence

Said to be a 8216;8216;retaliatory8217;8217; move following the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat, the conspiracy for the attack was reportedly hatched in Riyadh. The militants were Pakistanis and the arms and ammunition used in the attack were brought from J-K. Gokani, while pronouncing the judgment, held the three sentenced to death directly responsible for the killing in the temple.

On September 24, 2002 Akshardham temple, run by the Akshar Purshottam Swaminarayan Sansthan, was stormed by two Pakistan-based terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba LeT. They lobbed grenades and opened indiscriminate fire on devotees in the temple premises. Twenty-nine visitors, two National Security Guard NSG commandos and two state commandos were killed and 81 people injured in the attack. NSG commandos, after a night-long gun battle, killed the militants identified as Murtuza Hafiz Yasin code name Doctor 2 and Ashrafali Mohammed Farooq Doctor 3. The militants were connected to Tehreeq-e-Qasas, a wing of the LeT. There were 34 accused including the two militants who were killed in the case, of whom the police arrested only six. Main accused Abu Hamza and 25 others are still absconding.

The police had submitted to the court that some of the accused had fled to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and that the police did not have passport details or photographs so as to take further action.

8216;8216;We produced overwhelming evidence in the court to prove our case, including their confessional statements. We are satisfied with the order,8217;8217; Special Public Prosecutor Sudhir Brahmbhatt said.

According to the prosecution, the conspiracy was hatched in Riyadh. Umesh Trivedi, Public Prosecutor, said, 8216;8216;A meeting took place in Riyadh between Altaf Husain and Mohammed Salim Sheikh, brother of Adam Abdul Rashid, who is absconding. They collected funds by distributing CDs showing the state of Muslims affected in the Gujarat riots. Adam helped the terrorists do a recce of Ahmedabad and select Akshardham as a target.8217;8217;

The prosecution said both terrorists belonged to Pakistan. Though there is no direct evidence to show how they reached Ahmedabad, they reached here two days before the attack and visited Hotel Gulshan. They were carrying AK-56 rifles, live cartridges and hand grenades and stayed at a community hall and Adam8217;s brother8217;s residence before storming the temple, the prosecution had said. The two letters found in the militants8217; possession urged Muslims who had suffered post-Godhra to retaliate.

Brahmbhatt said the court in its order observed: 8216;8216;The terrorists calculatedly selected the place of attack, their intention was to challenge the integrity and the unity of the nation and to destabilise the state government. Though none of them suffered any personal losses in the post-Godhra riots, they facilitated and actively participated in the terrorist attack. To show the deterrence in the society and combat terrorism, it is required to award the extreme penalty 8212; death sentence.8217;8217;