Introduction: Terrorists told him about their plan to attack Babri site, admits Unani doctor Irfan Khan who lived next door: interrogation report
One man knew about the plans of the Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists to storm the makeshift temple in Ayodhya. They wanted him to join them—he did not but kept their secret for six months.
The report of interrogation of Irfan Khan, a Unani doctor arrested in connection with the attack, reveals that he was the only person to whom the terrorists disclosed their plans. They told him: ‘‘Unhone masjid girayi thi, hum mandir girayange. Aap bhi hamare saath ho lijiye.
Khan reportedly admitted that the terrorists had repeatedly told him about ‘‘the Babri Masjid demolition and the injustice meted out to Muslims’’ and that they wanted to take ‘‘revenge.’’
Khan, a Unani doctor from Saharanpur who runs a clinic in Delhi’s Sangam Vihar, was sent to police custody last evening by a Faizabad court.
‘‘I advised them not to go ahead and told them that I was not with them in this. But they were highly motivated and seething with anger—especially after they returned to Delhi in June after seeing the Babri Masjid ruins,’’ he told the police.
Arun Kumar Gupta, IG of the UP Special Task Force, who is heading the investigation, said: ‘‘Khan knew the mind of the attackers all this while. The terrorists, in fact, used to sit at his house each evening talking about jihad and Babri Masjid, Khan has admitted.’’ ‘‘We are surprised why a fidayeen group trusted him so much and divulged their attack plan to him. Had he informed the police, we could have nabbed the terrorists alive,’’ IG Gupta added.
‘‘They were all young and hot-blooded. I regret that I never told the police about their plans which I knew for almost six months. The day the attack happened and I saw it on TV, I knew it had to be them,’’ Khan is quoted as saying in the interrogation report.
Dr Khan’s clinic was opposite to the house where the terrorists stayed in Delhi’s Deoli since August 2004. Police believe Khan knew of the movement of the terrorists. ‘‘There are phone calls from the terrorists to the doctor till the end of June. He even took one of the terrorists, Zuber, on his motorcycle to his cousin’s wedding at his native place, Nakud, in Saharanpur, on March 20. On one occasion, they also stayed together in Muzaffarnagar,’’ say the police.
‘‘I knew weapons had come to them and that they were shifting base to Akbarpur for making the final attack. But I did not tell the police, somewhat out of anger but more out of the attachment with them,’’ Khan is quoted as saying in the interrogation report.
IG Gupta told The Sunday Express
that it is unlikely that Khan was part of any sleeper fidayeen cell or
assisted the terrorists. ‘‘We now believe he was just used by the terrorists...
They stayed at his house and also used his mobile phone. But he knew of
the conspiracy and he never divulged it to the police. That’s his crime,’’
he said.