LUCKNOW: Wali Ullah, one of the alleged masterminds of the March 8 Varanasi blasts, on Wednesday said he was drawn to terrorism after having been exposed to ``jehadi propaganda'' in literature and footage on the Gujarat riots and the demolition at Ayodhya.

A map recovered from him and his five accomplices, arrested earlier in the day, has given rise to speculation that the Hanuman Mandir at Aliganj in Lucknow was on the hit list of the ultras.

Altogether six kg of RDX, three kg of plastic explosives (PETN), 15 hand grenades, an AK-47 assault rifle, a 0.32-bore pistol and 10 detonators were recovered from them.

The accomplices, all in their 20s, had stayed in a room Wali Ullah (32) hired at Phulpur in Allahabad district four days before the incidents, which left 20 persons dead and over 50 injured. They allegedly made the pressure cooker bombs before leaving for the temple city on March 7, Inspector-General Jagmohan Yadav said.

Earlier in February, Wali Ullah was contacted by some agents in Mau Aima in Allahabad and was told that Asad Ullah, a Bangladesh-based commander of the Harkat ul-Jehadi Islamia(HuJI), would send some trained youths from Bangladesh for carrying out terrorist attacks, Mr. Yadav said.

HuJI and Jaish follow the Deoband sect and both are offshoots of the Harkat-ul-Ansar militant group. HuJI was banned in India for its role in terrorist acts in Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir.

The recent attack on the STF headquarters in Andhra Pradesh was also the handiwork of the group, whose cadres have infiltrated in Uttar Pradesh. — UNI, PTI

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