Uttar Pradesh Police arrested seven terrorists for plotting to incite Hindu-Muslim riots in the religious city of Ayodhya

The Ayodhya police on Thursday busted, a gang of conspirators who made a well-planned attempt to trigger communal riots in Ayodhya just before the Eid festival. The miscreants had dumped some objectionable items, including torn pages of sacred text, raw meat and threats and abuses written on paper outside four mosques in the district early on Wednesday morning.

The police team led by IG, Ayodhya range, KP Singh and SSP Shailesh Pandey arrested seven miscreants, including gang…

The police team led by IG, Ayodhya range, KP Singh and SSP Shailesh Pandey arrested seven miscreants, including gang leader Mahesh Mishra who claimed to be leader of one ‘Hindu Yodha Sangathan’. The state government has announced Rs 1 lakh reward for the Ayodhya police team.

The state government has announced Rs 1 lakh reward for the Ayodhya police team which managed to arrest seven people who tried to vitiate the communal atmosphere in the temple town just before Eid.

Police say that Mishra is a known trouble-maker and four criminal cases had already been registered against him with the Kotwali City police station.

Other arrested gang members have been identified as Pratyush Kumar, Nitin Kumar, Deepak Gaud, Brajesh Pandey, Shatrughan and Vimal Pandey, all residents of the area falling under the Kotwali City police station.

During interrogation, the accused said that they were disturbed over developments at Jahangirpuri in Delhi. In a bid to avenge the Jahangirpuri incidents, they planned to trigger communal riots in Ayodhya, the police said.

Earlier, the police had lodged four FIRs against unknown miscreants as the objectionable items were found from outside four spots, including Taatshah Jama Masjid, Masjid Ghosiyana, Masjid at Kashmiri Mohalla and at Mazaar known as Gulab Shah Baba, all under the vicinity of Kotwali city police station area of Ayodhya.

In all, 11 miscreants were involved in the conspiracy, the police said, adding that a manhunt was launched for the remaining four miscreants. The accused have been booked under sections 295, 295 A 304, 305 and 307 of Indian Penal Code.

Mishra, who heads the gang, told the police that they finalized their strategy at the house of Brijesh Pandey. They purchased skull caps, two copies of sacred book, raw meat and writing material. Abuses and threats were written on the paper and they proceeded towards the Beniganj area on motorcycles to dump all this material there.

However, due to deployment of a police van in Beniganj area they dropped their plan to dump the material there. Finally, the objectionable material was thrown outside Taatshah Jama Masjid, Masjid Ghosiyana, a masjid at Kashmiri Mohalla and at Mazaar known as Gulab Shah Baba.