Remand of Ayodhya attack accused extended to Mar 9

Faizabad, Mar 01: A District Court today (Mar 01, 2006) extended till March nine the judicial remand of five accused in the Ayodhya Fidayeen attack case.

The accused; Nasim Ahmed, Shakil Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, Mohd. Aziz and Dr Irfan lodged in the Naini Central Jail in Allahabad, 170 km from here, were produced before the court of District Judge R P Shukla amid tight security today.

The District Judge extended the judicial remand of the accused till March nine.

The Judge also directed the accused to arrange a lawyer to plead their case on the next hearing on March nine, failing which the court will have to arrange a counsel for the accused.

Following the attack on the Ram Janmabhoomi on July five last year, the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) had lodged a case under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 147, 148, 307, 302, 353, 153, 153 A, 295, 120 B and 4.

Shakil, Nasim, Asif and Aziz were arrested on July 14 and 27 from Kashmir by the state Police.

They were accused of providing SIM card and sophisticated weapons to the five terrorists, who stormed the high security Janmabhoomi complex.

The fidayeen were, however, killed by security personnel deployed at the site.

Irfan, a Unani medical practitioner, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police on July 22 in Saharanpur. He is also accused of being party to the conspiracy.

UNI