Key accused of 2002 Akshardham temple attack nabbed in Anantnag

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Prime conspirator in the 2002 Akshardham Temple attack in Gandhinagar was held by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad on Friday. The key accused Mohammad Yasin Butt was arrested from Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mohammad Yasin Butt, who is believed to be an operative of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, had escaped to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) after the temple attack, said Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja.

Butt was nabbed following an intelligence report that he had returned to Kashmir and was working at a timber warehouse in Anantnag.

In 2002 Akshardham attack, as many as 33 persons, including a National Security Guard (NSG) commando, were killed when two terrorists started indiscriminate firing inside the sprawling temple complex located just a stone's throw from the official residence of the Chief Minister in Gandhinagar on September 24, 2002. 

The assailants were gunned down by the commandos of the National Security Guard. 

ATS officials said Butt, an alleged operative of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),  played a vital role in the conspiracy to attack the temple complex and supplied arms and ammunition, including AK 47 rifles, to the assailants who had travelled to Ahmedabad by a train from Uttar Pradesh. 

He had fled to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) after the attack, according to officials. The ATS team brought Butt to Ahmedabad on Friday evening after obtaining a transit remand from a court in Jammu and Kashmir.

In May 2014, the Supreme Court had acquitted six persons convicted earlier in the case and three of them were facing a death sentence.

(With IANS inputs)

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