It was Jaish-e-Mohammed and not Lashkar-e-Taiba behind the July 5 attack on the Ram Janambhoomi temple complex in Ayodhya as was suspected earlier, informed sources said.
During a detailed interrogation by central security agencies of the 5 persons arrested, it was revealed that it was JeM and not LeT behind the failed attack on the makeshift temple, the sources said.
Ayodhya attack: 5 LeT men held
Though Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir police were trying hard to piece together their stories of Lashkar being involved in the attack, several leads clearly indicated involvement of JeM in the attack, which included evidences gathered by central agencies that Mohammed Kari, the absconding mastermind, was the local commander of JeM and not Lashker.
Ayodhya attackers get 14-day judicial remand
During investigation, it was found that one of the 5 militants, killed during the attack on July 5, had visited Deoband and had stayed there.
JeM is headed by Masood Azhar, who was released in 1999 in exchange for hijacked passengers of IC-814. He had mentioned the attack on the Ram temple in his diary when he was arrested in mid 90s, the sources added.
The sources quoted the arrested militants as saying that it was one of the unfulfilled dreams of Azhar to attack the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram temple at Ayodhya and one of the important tasks of JeM, formed after breaking away from Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.