Terrorists storm temple, 44 killed

At least 44 people, including four children and nine women, were slain by terrorists at the Swaminarayan sect’s Akshardham Temple in Gandhinagar on Tuesday evening.

Till as late as midnight, firing was still on between the terrorists and NSG commandos. The terrorists, believed to be at least two and perhaps as many as seven, are armed with AK-47s and grenades and have put the temple under siege since 4.45 pm. At least 40 people are still believed to be trapped inside the temple, while 225 others were escorted out safely.

Flushing out the terrorists has become extremely difficult because it is night-time, and as the temple is spread over an area of 22 acres, it has become difficult to locate them. Special lights have been installed and the entire area has been illuminated to facilitate police and commando operations. However, a senior police officer inside the temple premises said at 11 pm that they were still not sure of the number of terrorists inside the temple or the number of civilians trapped. Two terrorists have been spotted. One was wearing a red T-shirt and the other a sky blue shirt.

A red alert has been sounded all over Gujarat and security has been tightened. Ironically, the Akshardham Temple is right opposite the residential enclave of state ministers.

Union home minister L.K. Advani, who represents the city in the Lok Sabha, rushed to the scene of the tragedy immediately on getting the news. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is on a visit to the Maldives, is cutting short his trip to rush back in view of this incident.

Speaking to reporters here, Mr. Advani blamed the "enemies of this country" for the terrorist strike, and hinted that it was possible that the terrorist groups had got frustrated as the Kashmir elections had been held in a free and fair manner and with a fairly large turnout.

The terrorists reportedly came in an Ambassador car and entered the temple at around 4.45 pm. According to Manubhai, the guard at Gate 3, he saw two people in khaki uniforms who jumped the fence. They went towards the Exhibition Hall and hurled a grenade first, and then started firing indiscriminately.

The temple had no armed security; the 25 security guards had batons but could do nothing. After the terrorists had gunned down around 25 people randomly, all those present tried to run for their lives. Several were injured while the terrorists continued to fire. Hira Solanki, a BJP MLA, was the first person to enter the temple at 4.50 pm, just 10 minutes after the terrorists took over. He said that by the time he got inside, there were 22 bodies lying around. He brought 20 bodies on his shoulders and said most of them were likely to be dead. The first person he saw dead was a sardar, he added. He said he had even carried four children, including an eight-to-10-month-old baby.

Nilesh Barot, who was in the temple, called up at around 5.45 pm and said that all those who were in the exhibition hall were then safe as the terrorists had moved to another location. They locked the hall door and by midnight all of them had been escorted out safely.

However, one of them, 15-year-old Vipul Soni, who had bloodstains all over his body, said that while he was escorted out from the exhibition hall he had no idea where his five family members were. The boy had to wait with his injuries and bloodstains for over two and a half hours outside the temple before he could be moved to the hospital for treatment. The cries of children were heard for the first hour but after 6 pm there was complete silence except for the sound of firing. Till then, the terrorists had flung over half a dozen bombs besides continuing indiscriminate fire.

Sheer chaos prevailed outside the temple premises. The first stretcher also came in only at 7.40 pm. At around 8 pm, the area was cordoned off. There were seriously injured women with their intestines hanging, trying to walk to the ambulances.

The Swaminarayan is the most influential sect in Gujarat and dignitaries ranging from former US President Bill Clinton to Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee have visited this temple in the past. As a mark of protest against the terrorist attack, all Swaminarayan temples have been closed down.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the state government had taken all necessary steps to combat the "dastardly" act and appealed to the people to maintain peace. "Having failed in Kashmir, it was a handiwork of the same elements as part of their deep conspiracy to disturb peace in Gujarat," he said. Later, the Chief Minister claimed that "the enemy to engineer this could be a non-Indian... because no Indian can stoop down to this level."

The Congress has given a call for a Gujarat bandh on Wednesday and the VHP has given a bandh call for the day after.

Republished from The Asian Age