The Lashker-e-Taiba militants, arrested in connection with the strike on the Central Reserve Police Force camp in Uttar Pradesh, had planned to first carry out a suicide attack on an Army convoy which passes through Rampur, but shelved it later.
The plan was worked out by Suhail and Arshad Ali alias Baba, both residents of UP, Fayheem, a Pakistani national, Sallahuddin, a resident of Madhubani in Bihar, and Imran and Farooq, both from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, official sources said today.
The sources said the spot from where the attack could be carried out was also selected, the sources said, adding that the plan was not executed because there was no particular timing for the movement of the convoy. The Army has a formation in the adjacent Bareilly area, 60 kms from Rampur.
The militants were apprehensive about coming out in the open with their weapons as they feared that they might be caught if there was no movement of the Army convoy, the sources said.
After many deliberations, the CRPF camp at Rampur was chosen as an alternative target for the attack, they said.
The six militants were also working on plans to leave for Mumbai to carry out a terror strike and also made a reccee of the Bombay Stock Exchange. Fahyeem had arranged for logistics in Mumbai, the sources said.
According to the arrested militants, the arms and ammunition were brought from the Lashker's south Kashmir-based commander codenamed Aatif. The weapons were brought to Uttar Pradesh inside the cavity of a Tata Sumo car.
Sallahuddin, alleged to be the mastermind of the attack on the CRPF camp in Rampur, was in close contact with Aatif besides taking directions from across the border, the sources said.
The authorities were now probing their roles in other incidents, which continues to remain a mystery for the central security agencies.
Sallahuddin told interrogators about his involvement in the attack on the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore on December 28, 2005, in which a professor of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi -- M C Puri -- was killed and four others were injured, the sources said.
He is claimed to have said that he had hired a room in Bangalore, where the planning was done to carry out the sensational attack on IISc, though the Indian Space and Research Organisation was their initial target.