The Hindu : `Killed militant was behind Akshardam attack'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 09, 2003

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`Killed militant was behind Akshardam attack'

By Our Staff Reporter

JAMMU AUG. 8. In a major breakthrough by the Border Security Force, the chief coordinator (operations) of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and suspect in the terrorist attack on the Akshardham temple in Gujarat last September was killed in central Kashmir on Thursday.

A BSF spokesman said a joint operation, based on an intelligence input, was launched with the Jammu and Kashmir police in Kesarmulla area in Budgam district on Thursday night.

The area was cordoned off and a massive search operation was launched.

A group of militants were trapped in their hideout. In the ensuing gun battle, a Pakistani militant, Manzoor Zahid Chowdhary, was killed while the rest escaped.

The documents recovered from the militant showed that he was the brain behind the attack on the Akshardham temple.

He had e-mailed one Saiful Muzammil in Pakistan about the successful attack on the temple.

He had also brought in two other Pakistani militants, Hafiz and Abdul Haval, to carry out the temple attack.

Chowdhary was suspected of being involved in the Nadimarg massacre. And, he was part of the team that planned a fidayeen (suicide squad) attack in Ayodhya before December 6, 2002.

The plan did not materialise as the two militants who were sent to carry out the attack were eliminated in an encounter in Faridabad.

He was also involved in a couple of bank robberies and was planning to mount a fidayeen attack on the Amarnath pilgrims.

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