news details |
|
|
| Ayodhya mastermind killed | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 18: The top Pakistani militant and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) commander Abdullah alias Dawood Khan, killed Sunday by police and army in a meticulously planned operation at Chunga Nadol in Mendhar, Poonch, was the one, who masterminded the July 2005 Ayodhya attack.
He was a die-hard fan of Osama bin Laden and drew inspiration from him as he carried with him al-Qaeda superemo's photographs.
It was a major achievement of security forces as apart from being one of the chief architects of the attack on the fountainhead of faith, Dawood was the strategic planner behind large scale intrusion from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 10 years.
During his tenure as JeM chief of the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri for over a decade, he motivated several local youth to join militant ranks. Many of them were sent by him across the Line of Control (LoC) in PoK to receive training in the handling of arms and ammunition.
SSP, Poonch district, Manmohan Singh said intelligence inputs suggesting the movement of Dawood and his two bodyguards in Chunga Nadol forests were pouring in for the past a week or so. "We were keeping a track on him," he added.
Singh said when a joint search party of police and army spotted the threesome in the Chunga Nadol forests Sunday morning, they fled towards the nearby village.
While the bodyguards managed to give cops a slip, Dawood took shelter in a cowshed in the house of retired police Headconstable Mohammad Din. Plugging all escape routes, the troops then zeroed in on the house, the SSP added.
He said in the evening, the militant came out of the cowshed and threw a grenade towards the troops. The grenade explosion was followed by heavy firing from him, he added.
Taking advantage of the "confusion" caused by the explosion which did not cause any harm, he tried to flee from the back side of the house, but an ambush party shot him dead without giving him a chance to retaliate.
Apart from one AK rifle, its ammunition, a rubber stamp and identity cards, troops recovered from him photographs of Laden and a Pakistani Peer, three SIMs of BSNL, two of Airtel, one of Aircel and one of Pakistan's Telenor company.
Mohammad Din was arrested and put to sustained interrogation. The SSP said the attack on the Ram temple in Ayodhya was planned in Mendhar with Dawood as one of the main architects. The goal was to flare up Hindu-Muslim riots in the country, he added.
Probe into the incident had led investigators to Mendhar from where five persons were arrested for providing logistical support to the attackers. Two Tata Sumos, used for transporting militants and weapons from Mendhar to Uttar Pradesh, were also seized by police.
A total of eight militants, all hailing from Mendhar, had helped five JeM fidayeens in the attack. Five of them were arrested while three could not be held.The arrested JeM operatives included Farooq Ahmed of Patta Kar, Mohammad Naseem of Dera Jattan village, Abdul Aziz of Patti Dara village, Shakeel Ahmed and Mushtaq Ahmed of Derrian village. Farooq worked at the popular Shahadara Sharief shrine in Rajouri.
The three absconding militants were identified as Dawood, Mohammad Akbar of Sakhi Maidan and Abu Salam. The militants who attempted to carry out the suicide attack near the makeshift temple were speaking Sindhi or Baloch dialects.
Saifullah Qarri, Dawood's close associate and JeM commander, who had planned the Ayodhya attack with him, was killed by security forces sometime after the attack in Ramzan Mohalla of Janipura, a congested locality on the outskirts of old city.
His associate was injured and arrested by police.Now, with Dawood's killing, JeM back was broken in Poonch and Rajouri districts, the SSP added. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
