Akshardham: Cops ‘nail’ local link

Nearly a year after the Akshardham attack, the police claimed to have notched up a success on the local angle front. The state Forensic Scie...

Nearly a year after the Akshardham attack, the police claimed to have notched up a success on the local angle front. The state Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) confirmed that the handwriting on the two letters found with the terrorists killed at Akshardham matched with that of one of the five people arrested by the Crime Branch in Ahmedabad.

The FSL conducted the tests in consultation with Government Examiner of Questioned Documents, a Central Government body, and found that the handwriting was ‘‘exactly similar’’ to that of Mufti Abdul Kayyum Mansuri, who was arrested by city police on August 29.

Earlier this month, the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of the city police had sent the handwriting samples of the accused to the FSL. The samples were to be matched with the two letters found with the two Lashkar fidayeen, who were shot dead by NSG commandoes on September 25 last year. The letters had been retrieved by Brigadier Raj Seetapathy.

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Forensic examination of the samples has shown that the handwriting is exactly similar and that there is no variation between them.

Sources informed that apart from the handwriting samples, a notebook containing handwriting of accused Mufti Abdul Kayum Mansuri, which was recovered from his residence earlier this month, was also checked by forensic experts. The handwriting was found similar to the samples and the two Tehrik-e-Kisas letters.

‘‘With a panel of experts having confirmed that the handwriting of the accused and those on the letters as exactly similar, now there is no doubt about involvement of the accused and his links,’’ a senior police officer said.

Police, meanwhile, are not commenting on how the black ball-point pen with which the two Tehrik-e-Kisas letters were written was found from Akshardham on September 25 last year. This is something that has since then been confirmed by state FSL experts.

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However, this fresh evidence has created another difference between the story put forward by Chand Khan Sajjad Khan, arrested last month by J-K police, and the five locals arrested by the DCB late last month.

While Chand claimed that he had escorted the two militants to the state on the eve of the attack with AK-56 assault rifles and hand grenades and helped them in deciding on Akshardham as the target, confessions of the locals showed that the two fidayeen arrived in the city at least a week before the incident and that they (the locals) had provided them with logistical support.

Moreover, Chand, during sustained interrogation by J-K police and DCB, denied any local help in executing the terrorist plan and claimed ignorance about the two letters found on the bodies of the fidayeen. The arrested locals have also denied any links with Chand. Police said they would now attempt to reveal links between these accused and the authenticity of their claims.