BANGALORE: Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists arrested in connection with the IISc attack have revealed during a narco-analysis test that they had planned to attack Vidhana Soudha, Hewlett-Packard (HP) buildings, a mosque and the RSS building on HAL Road. They also wanted to target ex-PM A B Vajpayee and BJP leader L K Advani. LeT cadres visited the places and conducted a recce to stage the attacks, starting with a mosque on December 31, then buildings of HP, followed by Vidhana Soudha. The accused — Razi-ur-Rehman alias Abdul Rehman, LeT's southern India commander, and Afsar Pasha (28) — were subjected to the narco-analysis at Bowring Hospital on Jan 31. Rehman revealed he had planned to target Vidhana Soudha. He informed the interrogators that he wanted to plant a bomb between 3.30 and 4 pm when a large crowd would be present and security would be thin. Had they succeeded, he said, they could have created huge losses to the government and become more powerful. Pasha said he visited Vidhana Soudha regularly and had also chosen the time and spot of the attack.
Their next action plan was to target Vajpayee and Advani. Pasha said he had knowledge of the IISc attack three weeks before the incident. Rehman said LeT leader Abu Ali from Pakistan had assigned the task of attacking IISc to a certain Salim. A resident of UP, Salim, aged around 25, had come to Bangalore with his associates in an Ambassador car. They had received weapons like AK-56 from Pakistan. Rehman said his friend Aslam was with Salim to carry out the attack. Salim was arrested in Hyderabad. Their hide-out was a leather business centre in Bangalore, Rehman said. Giving details about LeT and its network in south India, Rehman said Abu Hamza and Sheikh Mohammed funded the attack.