2002 Akshardham temple attack accused Mohammed Farooq Shaikh arrested

Mohammed Farooq Shaikh, an accused in the 2002 Akshardham temple terror attack case, was arrested by the Crime Branch of the Gujarat police soon after he alighted from a flight at Ahmedabad airport on Monday. Shaikh had arrived from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, assistant commissioner of police Bhagrithsinh Gohil said.

Gujarat: Accused Mohammed Farooq Shaikh in 2002 Akshardham Temple attack arrested by Ahmedabad Crime Branch from Ahmedabad Airport pic.twitter.com/R5NbGc3K0X

— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2018

Thirty people were killed and eight injured when on September 24, 2002, two armed terrorists had attacked the temple in Gandhinagar. The attackers were killed by National Security Guards (NSG) commandoes.  The attack followed the Godhra riots in the same year.

"Shaikh lived in Juhapura before he fled to Riyadh in 2002 after the temple attack," the police official said, adding he had arranged funds for the attack.

In 2014, the Supreme Court acquitted six convicts in the case, including three, who were on a death row. While a POTA court had earlier convicted six accused in the case and pronounced death sentence for three, the Supreme Court had come down heavily on the investigating agencies and cited that there was not enough evidence to convict the men.