Led Up To The Wall

Was it revenge or cross-border terrorism? Ten days after the attack on the Akshardham temple complex, the Gujarat police know little more about the terrorists than what they did 24 hours after the incident.

Deputy prime minister L.K. Advani announced, and chief minister Narendra Modi concurred, that the duo that gunned down 31 people at the temple complex were from Pakistan. The Union home ministry even identified the terrorists as Mohammed Amjad from Peshawar and Hafiz Yassir from Attock.

The Gujarat police, however, admit that they are yet to crack their names. This was admitted by virtually all police officials associated with the Akshardham investigation, from director-general of police K. Chakravarthy, Gandhinagar Range IG Pramod Kumar, Gandhinagar SP R.B. Brahmbhatt, dcp (Crime Branch) D.G. Vanzara and dig (ats) Vipul Vijoy. On Thursday evening, Pramod Kumar told Outlook: "The names of the terrorists and other identity issues have not come up so far in our investigations."

Police officials also stated that they have no communication from the Union home ministry about the exact identity of the two terrorists or the names of towns they hailed from. They also picked up the information from media reports.

Vipul Vijoy had told reporters in Ahmedabad early in the week that the terrorist operation was similar to the December 13 attack on Parliament. And this is why it gave the impression that the Tehreek-e-Kasas group, which the boys claimed to represent, could have had links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba. No confirmation has been found yet on this either.

Otherwise, the Gujarat police had been quick to get to taxi driver Raju Thakore and the cab's owner Mansukh Acharya, conclusively finding that they had ferried the two terrorists for Rs 120 to Akshardham in a white Ambassador car from Ahmedabad railway station. They have also rounded up some other suspects. But the attack itself continues to be a mystery.