OPERATION VAJRA SHAKTI
On 24 September 2002, two armed attackers attacked Akshardham Temple complex at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. They killed 30 people and injured more than 80.
National Security Guard intervened and launched Operation Vajra Shakti to neutralise terrorists.
12 AKSHARDHAM ATTACK OR OPERATION VAJRA SHAKTI RELATED FACTS
- Three minutes after the attack began, Vishwa Vihari Swami, at the Akshardham Temple Complex, made an SOS call to Chief Minister Narendra Modi's office and informed them about the attack.
- Within minutes, Gandhinagar's district police chief R.R.Brahmbhatt was dispatched to the scene. Additionally, the State Commando force was instructed to also arrive at the Akshardham Temple Complex.
- Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi called the Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani in Delhi and asked for the National Security Guards (NSG), commonly referred to as Black Cat Commandos.
- National Security Guards intervened and ended the siege by killing both attackers the same night.
- The National Security Guards were first in line, followed by men from the Rapid Action Force, Border Security Force, State Reserve Police and the Anti-Terrorist Squad.
- Terrorists were between the ages of 20 and 25 carrying haversacks and jackets filled with automatic weapons and grenades.
- Six accused were later arrested by Gujarat Police. In May 2014, a Supreme Court of India bench acquitted all the six prisoners of all charges and pulled up the Gujarat Police for shoddy investigation in the case.
- “The police tortured and forced me to write the letters. They claimed the letters were found from the pockets of the fidayeen killed during the attack. But the Supreme Court noticed that the letters were clean, not torn, or soiled/stained with blood or soil — which was highly unnatural and improbable as the terrorists’ bodies were covered with blood and mud, and their clothes had multiple tears and holes due to the bullets,” Mr. Qayyum recounted.
- According to Brigadier Raj Seethapathy, the gunmen carried letters in Urdu which affirmed their connection with an organisation called Tehrik-E-Kasas or Movement for Revenge.
- The letters suggested that the gunmen carried out the attack "because they could not tolerate what happened to children, women and Muslims during the Gujarat riots.
- Upon reading these letters, the officials believed that Tehrik-e-Kasas was formed specifically to avenge the Gujarat riots.
- In 2010, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) associate David Headley, who was arrested in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks, reportedly confessed to the National Investigation Agency that an LeT militant named Muzammil planned and conducted the Akshardham Temple attack.
