Ayodhya attackers: Cops connect dots till 12 days before

Pakistan to Kashmir and then New Delhi. The Uttar Pradesh police, along with their J-K counterparts, have connected most of the dots that ch...

Pakistan to Kashmir and then New Delhi. The Uttar Pradesh police, along with their J-K counterparts, have connected most of the dots that chart the journey of the five terrorists who attacked the makeshift temple complex in Ayodhya on July 5.

But what remains a grey area is their schedule during the 12 days leading to the attack, after the LeT men shifted from their Delhi base to UP.

‘‘The five terrorists had left their New Delhi bases on May 24, along with the arms and ammunition they got from Kashmir. They came to UP and set up a second base here,’’ Inspector General (Special Task Force), Arun Kumar Gupta, told Express today.

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Based on the mobile phone calls made by the terrorists, police sources say this base was Akbarpur in Ambedkar Nagar district. ‘‘Our main focus of investigations will be on what the terrorists did in those 12 days, and those who sheltered and assisted them in the attack. This is the second, vital part of the investigation,’’ says IG Gupta.

Senior investigating officers admit that the terrorists made daily recee trips to Ayodhya after reaching Akbarpur on May 24 and were assisted by some locals. Apparently, these trips made them realise the dismal security on the less-taken route to the temple.

‘‘They also spotted two broken railings in the security fence, which was being used by some policemen as a short-cut. On the blast day, they drove past the unguarded barricades. While one of them entered through the railings blown open by the blast to divert attention, four others entered through the two broken railings,’’ says a senior official.

Says Additional DGP A Palanivel, ‘‘They were aided by local contacts in Akbarpur and Faizabad. The SIM card of the mobile phone that we seized from one of the terrorists was also purchased from Faizabad, on May 2. Besides Pakistan and J&K, numerous calls were also made to Lucknow and Akbarpur, implying they had sympathisers there.’’

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All that the police can confirm now about those 12 days is that the accused hired a Tata Sumo with their weapons on June 5 around 5:30 am from Akbarpur and drove to Faizabad where they hired Rehan’s Marshall jeep for a tour of Ayodhya.