The Hindu : Chargesheet against 34 in Akshardham case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 27, 2003

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Chargesheet against 34 in Akshardham case

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD Nov. 26. The Crime Branch in Gujarat police have filed a 1,750-page chargesheet against 34 accused in the Akshardham terrorist attack case in which 33 pilgrims and a National Security Guard commando were killed before the two gunmen were shot dead in the temple complex on September 24 last year.

Among the 34 accused named in the chargesheet filed before the special POTA court of Sonia Gokani, six are in the custody of the police and 28 persons, including Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel, are absconding.

The chargesheet upholds the stand earlier taken by the Crime Branch when five of the accused — Altaf Mallik Hussain, Adam Ajmeri, Mohammed Salim, Abdul Qayyum and Abdullah Yasin — were arrested in Ahmedabad a few months ago claiming a ``local link'' in the plot hatched in Jeddah and executed with the help of the terrorist organisations and their sympathisers in Pakistan, Hyderabad and Jammu and Kashmir.

The sixth accused, Chand Khan, arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police and brought to Gujarat, was named as an accomplice, as he had allegedly purchased a car in Anantnag and renovated it to bring in arms and ammunition for the use of the terrorist duo in the temple in the State capital city of Gandhinagar.

The chargesheet, however, does not bear out the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi's initial reaction after the temple attack that it had no connection with the communal riots in the State and was plotted by Pakistan to threaten the country's security and disrupt the poll process in Jammu and Kashmir. It said the attack was a ``backlash'' to the post-Godhra violence and hatched by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba to avenge the killings of Muslims in the riot.

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