Ayodhya attack planner back in Pak
With LeT commander Qari out of reach, more leads may be hard to come by.
Investigating agencies probing the Ayodhya attack have been dealt a blow as the mastermind, Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Saifullah Qari, has crossed over to Pakistan and is learnt to have reached his native town of Sindh.
With Qari out of reach, more leads may be hard to come by. But the search is still on for another Lashkar commander, Adnan, who helped Qari transport the weaponry from J&K to Ayodhya.
Vital information collected by HT has revealed that Qari infiltrated into Poonch in 2004 and remained an LeT operation commander. A graphic prepared by investigating agencies shows him to be 23 to 25 years of age with fair complexion. His body language, as disclosed by arrested LeT terrorists Mohammad Naseem and Asif Iqbal, further suggests he was an army regular in Pakistan.
“Qari was always seen with his close aide Sindhia. Both conversed in Sindhi. After the Ayodhya attack, their activities in Poonch couldn’t be traced,” sources said. Further investigations revealed the duo crossed over to Pakistan from Mendhar on the intervening night of July 7and 8.
“Investigators are also trying to ascertain if the fidayeen reached Ayodhya via the Indo-Pak border in Gujarat,” the sources said. An important lead that has been unearthed is that two cellphones were purchased and used to smuggle the weaponry outside J&K. One of them was presented to Qari by Naseem. The present location of that mobile is being probed.
In UP, with the identification of Qari and two of the five shrine bombers, the joint investigation team has launched a massive drive to locate their hideouts in Faizabad, Akbarpur and Gonda. An intelligence officer told HT on Sunday that a local “mole” needed to be identified for without this, the case wouldn’t be fully solved.
Akbarpur has of late been under surveillance because of the ISI network there. But investigators are reportedly practising caution in view of the religious sensitivity of Kichaucha, a Muslim pilgrim town there. Many pilgrims on their way to Kichaucha normally take the Akbarpur route and the probe team believes the terrorists might have taken advantage of this to stay in the town. Detection of their hideouts is vital because “since the terrorists are dead, recognising their local contact is important”, the officer said.
The investigators are also probing the use of TNT in the attack. Terrorists normally use RDX.