Prime conspirator in Akshardham terror attack held

Ahmedabad: The alleged prime conspirator in the 2002 terror attack on Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar, Abdul Rashid Ajmeri, was arrested at the city airport after he arrived from Riyadh, a senior official said.

The arrest was made late on Friday night.

“Ajmeri is one of the prime conspirators behind the Akshardham temple terror attack. He was arrested from the airport after he landed here late last night. We had inputs that he is travelling to Ahmedabad from Riyadh to meet his brother,” Deepan Bhadran, DCP of Ahmadabad Crime Branch, said on Saturday.

It was alleged that he had planned the terror attack and helped Lashkar-e-Toiba in carrying it out.

Ajmeri, an Ahmedabad resident, “had absconded to Riyadh before the terror act was committed,” Bhadran said, adding that more names may come out during his interrogation.

Two militants, allegedly with links to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba, had attacked the temple in Gandhinagar on September 24, 2002, killing 32 and injuring over 80 people.

The attackers were killed by the National Security Guard (NSG) commandos.

The Supreme Court had, in May 2014, acquitted all six convicts arrested earlier, including three facing death sentence, in the case.