Probe agencies looking for auto driver, handler of 'terrorist'
Investigating agencies are focusing on an unidentified handler, who gave suspected terrorist Abdul Rehman location to reach Pali village. The Special Task Force (STF) team is also on the lookout for the auto driver who took Abdul to Pali.
A senior investigating officer said interrogation of Rehman, and inputs from the intelligence agency, revealed that hand grenades were delivered to Faridabad through a handler. Rehman was given the task to collect hand grenades from Pali village and return to Ayodhya on April 4, but the STF unit of Palwal and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Gujarat, arrested him on March 2.
However, the handler, who had planted explosives at a ruined house in Pali, managed to flee. The STF may take Rehman to Ayodhya, and the teams have been deployed to examine CCTV footage of the area to identify the handler.
Sources claimed that Rehman had started working on the instructions of a terrorist organisation after the 'pran pratishtha' of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya last year. He was brainwashed through video calls and objectionable information was given to him. Inspired by the training given by the terrorist organisation on video calling, he performed a recce of the Ram Temple. Many videos were found on his phone.
A senior investigating official of the STF said after several rounds of interrogation, they were not clear about his target, which was being said to be the temple.
“Abdul Rehman has not confessed to a plot to attack the temple. He tried to mislead the investigating agency and changed his statements repeatedly. We are still questioning him,” he added.
Rehman was arrested by a joint team of the ATS and STF on Sunday, and now, multiple agencies have started a probe. Rehman, a native of Milkipur in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, allegedly had contacts with the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI.
