Akshardham attack suspect arrested in Hyderabad

A suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, Shaukatullah Ghouri, allegedly involved in the terror attack on the Akshardham temple in 2002, was arrested by the counter-intelligence cell and the Cyberabad police in Hyderabad on Saturday night.

A Gujarat police team, armed with a non-bailable warrant, arrived in the city hours after Ghouri was arrested at the Rajiv Gandhi International (RGI) airport at Shamshabad on the city outskirts upon his arrival from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Ghouri was handed over to the Gujarat police on Sunday morning as an arrest warrant is pending against him in the Akshardham case.

Cyberabad police said Ghouri, who used to work as an Imam at a mosque in Riyadh, was picked up by the personnel of the anti-terrorist force, the Organisation for Counter-Terrorist Operations (OCTOPUS), soon after he landed at RGI airport with his wife and four children. Ghouri had come to Hyderabad for wife’s treatment.

He was taken to an undisclosed location where he was interrogated by the officials of OCTOPUS and the local police. His wife and children were taken to a farmhouse where their baggage was searched and their passports and some educational certificates were seized. They were later released.

“Shaukatullah and his brother, Farhatullah, are both involved in the Akshardham temple attack,” a senior Intelligence officer said. “Both the brothers were initially trained by Jaish-e-Mohammad after which they worked in Ahmedabad. When their names figured in the list of suspects in the Akshardham attack case in 2002, both fled to Saudi Arabia.” Farhatullah Ghouri is still absconding.