UNI
Ahmedabad, Jul 2: Three accused in the Akshardham attack case were sentenced to death on Saturday by a POTA court here on charges of conspiracy and waging a war against the nation.
Two others were given ten years' imprisonment and one accused got five years RI.
Chand Khan Sajjad Khan from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, Mufti Abdul Qayyum Mansuri and Adam Suleiman Ajmeri were handed down the death sentences.
Mohammad Salim Sheikh and Mufti Abdul Miyan Qadri got ten years RI and Altaf Hussain Malek was given five years RI.
The six were found guilty by the POTA court for the terrorist attack on the Akshardham temple on September 24, 2002, in which 35 people including two NSG commandoes, were killed and 81 were injured.
Two Pakistan-based terrorists had stormed the Swaminarayan (Akshardham) temple in Gandhinagar dressed in Army fatigues and opened fire with automatic weapons and lobbed grenades, killing 33 visitors and leaving 81 injured.Two NSG commandoes and two Gujarat policemen were among those killed.
The terrorists identified as Murtuza Hafiz Yasin and Asraf Ali Mohammed Farooq, of the Tehreeq-e-Qasas group, a part of the Lashkar e Taiba, were later gunned down by the National Security Guards in a night-long operation.
There were 34 accused of which the police have arrested six and 26 are absconding.
The main accused of the attack are still at large. They include Abu Hamza, a LeT operative from Hyderabad, now based in Riyadh, Farooq Mohammed Hanif Shaikh, Abdul Rashid Suleman Ajmeri and Mohammeduvesh Kadri, all residents of Ahmedabad.
The incident was seen as a retaliation for the post-Godhra violence of 2002.
The investigations, initially handled by the Gandhinagar police, passed to the Anti-Terrorist Squad, and then to the Ahmedabad crime branch.
Police, in its progress report in April had pleaded helplessness to get the absconders as they have fled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and that it could do nothing about their extradition because it had no photographs or passport details for the lookout notices.
Five of the accused have given confessional statements under Section 32 of Pota which will be admitted as evidence.