Probe finds man behind Ayodhya attack planned Akshardham too

It appears that the plan was to blast the site with rockets which were launched by the terrorists immediately after they exploded their way past the outer perimeter.

Two of these rockets landed close to the sanctum sanctorum and had they exploded, sources said, the structure would have been damaged. The third rocket landed short of the target. But neither of the three rockets burst and as a back-up plan, the fidayeens attempted to damage the place themselves. However, they were gunned down trying to make their way from Sita ki Rasoi.

Muzamil is currently second only to Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the operational head of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and known as ‘‘Chachaji’’, among his cadre. All operations have the sanction of Chachaji, who has divided the responsibility between two key aides.

Second-in-command Muzamil is responsible for attacks outside J&K while Abu Al-Quma is in-charge of operations in J&K.

Lakhvi is the bridge between the two and so, all assistance from J&K like the supply of weapons in this case was arranged by Al-Quma through LeT’s Poonch divisional commander Mohammad Qari. Muzamil himself was the LeT’s divisional commander in J&K’s Doda district and crossed back into PoK sometime in 2001.

The weapons were sent in a Tata Sumo, currently with the J&K Police, stored in a specially made cavity. The consignment was sent by one Adnan from Sringar to Poonch. The vehicle belonged to one Shakeel who drove it along with Asif Iqbal alias Farooq to Panipat where one of the terrorists met them and is believed to have taken the vehicle to Delhi for the delivery on June 6.

Shakeel and Asif are locals from Poonch who continue to be evasive in their questioning. The terrorists and their accomplices have frequently changed SIM cards—there are 14 cards under scrutiny.

Investigations have established the identities of the five terrorists who stormed the Ramjanambhoomi Complex as Yunus, Mohammed Amin, Arif (whom Amin introduced as his own brother), Asif alias Arshad Ali and Irshad. The sixth accomplice, who did not take part in the attack, is Mahmood who had also enrolled himself in an English learning institute in Munirka on October 13 last year and was there till February.

They all formed part of a LeT sleeper cell and had reached here sometime in August last year. The first to arrive was Yunus, who hired a room for himself in Kishangarh near Vasant Kunj and then identified three separate accommodations in Devli village. Mahmood arrived a fortnight later and gradually the other members trooped in.

They even bought space for a vegetable shop and, in fact, even put up a stall in the weekly Saturday Bazaar. During this period, they developed a friendship with Irfan Khan, a unani doctor who was picked up by the police on Friday. Amin also travelled with Irfan to Deoband.

According to what has emerged from Irfan’s questioning, the terrorists ran their vegetable shop without raising any suspicion until April-end. This was probably around the time they received instructions to carry out the attack on the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi complex.

They suddenly decided to sell their shop and left for Akbarpur giving the alibi of a wedding. The suspicion is that this time was used to visit Ayodhya and carry out a detailed recce of the site. They returned sometime in mid-May and, according to Irfan, had completely transformed, talking about jehad and the virtues of extremist Islam.

They never opened a stall again but did get a vegetable cart. There was one alarm and that was when Manjeet, the son of Yunus’s landlord Ishwar Jat, spotted his tenant at a bus stop with a heavy bag. He offered a lift but Yunus refused despite Manjeet’s insistence.

Ishwar Jat learnt about this and a few days later, asked Yunus to get the necessary documents so that he could have him registered with the police. After delaying for a few days, one night when his landlord had gone to a wedding, Yunus left the place tearing all his papers. This was discovered by the police later.

This was around June 18 and contrary to initial conclusions, sources say, one of the terrorists left Delhi on June 21 to take care of the logistics. The others left on June 24 and June 30 by bus.

On July 5, the day of the attack, they left Faizabad. They wore new clothes and new shoes, another fidayeen trait. On the way, they changed over to Rehan’s vehicle. They roamed Ayodhya for two hours, sent their last SMS at 8.15 am and then launched the attack.