IISc attack: 6 get life term for LeT link

Six persons whom the Bangalore police arrested in the course of their investigation into a terrorist attack at the Indian Institute of Science

Six persons whom the Bangalore police arrested in the course of their investigation into a terrorist attack at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on December 28,2005 were sentenced to life imprisonment by a fast-track court here on Monday for offences other than the IISc attack.

The six men Abdul Razur Rehman,Afsar Pasha,Mehboob Ibrahim Chopdar,Noorulla Khan,Mohammed Irfan and Nazimuddin alias Munna were arrested on January 14,2006 and linked to the IISc attack despite lack of evidence to implicate them directly in the attack.

The six men,all hailing from small towns in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka,have now been sentenced to life term on charges of plotting to wage war against the country under Section 121 of the IPC and for criminal conspiracy under Section 120 (b),through their alleged association with the LeT.

Abdul Rehman,then a 35-year-old religious teacher,was first arrested from his hometown of Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh on the basis of his alleged association with LeT members during visits to Saudi Arabia and other parts of south Asia. The others all working as small-time mechanics and labourers were arrested subsequently.

Rehman was accused of plotting to wage war against the country on the basis of inflammatory literature found in his possession. At one point he was even identified by the police as a southern commander of the LeT. Cases of sedition,terrorism and creating religious disharmony were filed against the six men.

Despite the arrests in January 2006,the more plausible story of the IISc attack emerged only after the arrest of a former Bangalore-based student of business management by the Uttar Pradesh police in February 2008.

Investigations following the arrest of Sabahuddin Ahmad,then 24 years old,in connection with an attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur revealed that it was he,along with a Lashkar operative sent from Pakistan,Abu Hamza,who scoped and carried out the IISc attack.

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Former senior officers of the Bangalore police associated with the IISc attack probe admit off the record that the arrest of Rehman,Pasha and others was forced by the pressure of showing results in the probe in the immediate aftermath of the attack. There have always been two separate cases one involving the IISc attack and a second one involving a LeT plot. The arrests of Rehman and others were in connection with the LeT plot and not the IISc case. This demarcation has always been clear in the police, a senior police official said.