Hamza was brain behind Askshardham attack

Author: Sourav Mukherjee
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 29, 2004
URL: http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/articleshow/706485.cms

The main conspirator of the terrorist attack on Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar, Abu Hamza, was arrested in a pre-dawn raid by the Scotland Yard in London on Thursday.
 
The radical Muslim cleric - Abu Hamza al-Mazri - was nabbed on charges of aiding terrorists by plotting to set up an al-Qaeda training camp in the US and also for supporting a hostage-situation that had taken place in Yemen in 1998. Four persons were killed in the hostage drama.
 
Abu Hamza was arrested by the London police at Washington's request and the US is seeking his extradition. Hamza is named as an absconder in the Akshardham attack case. Sources said the Crime Branch has also unearthed his link in the serial bomb blast case that took place aboard AMTS buses on May 29, 2002.
 
This development in Britain has got the Ahmedabad city police, especially the Crime Branch, sit up and take notice. Sources told TNN that efforts are afoot to seek help from London police in the matter. Additional commissioner of police (crime) D G Vanzara told TNN: "Formal and informal enquiries have been initiated in connection with Hamza's arrest and his links with the Akshardham case. We are following the developments relating to Hamza closely."
 
The attack on Akshardham had taken place on September 24, 2002, when two gunmen entered the sprawling temple compound and opened fire from automatic weapons - AK 47s and hand grenades - on devotees.
 
A total of 34 persons, including three security personnel and two NSG commandos, had been killed in this attack before the terrorists were shot by NSG commandos.
 
Investigations carried out by the Anti-Terrorist Squad had revealed that the two suicide attackers were Pakistani nationals belonging to the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.
 
A year later on August 29, 2003, the Gujarat DGP handed over investigations of this case to the Crime Branch after it arrested five persons from Ahmedabad for allegedly helping the two terrorists in selecting the target, conducting recce and carrying out the attack.
 
Another accused, Chand Khan, was placed under arrest by the Crime Branch after being arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police.

The investigating agency in its chargesheet in the case named Abu Hamza of Riyadh as one of the main conspirators. The Crime Branch had alleged that the plot to attack Akshardham was hatched to avenge the communal riots in Gujarat.
 
The chargesheet said that the plot was hatched in Saudi Arabia and that the terrorist attack in Gujarat had been planned by Abu Hamza and Abu Sifiyan of Riyadh along with Abu Talah, a resident of Jeddah.
 
They allegedly took the help of one Salim Shaikh who worked in Riyadh but hailed from Dariapur in Ahmedabad. Salim was among the first to be arrested while the other three are named as absconders in the case.
 
Just hours after police arrested Abu Hamza in London, US officials announced his indictment in the Manhattan federal court on charges that could entail death penalty.
 
Abu Hamza, alias Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, has been a source of concern for US authorities for his preaching and words of praise for Osama bin Laden and the September 11 attack on WTO.
 
The Egyptian-born cleric, a subject of controversies in Britain, has one eye and a steel hook in place of his right hand. These are reminders of his days with the Afghan Mujahideen, fighting against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.
 

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