Indian authorities are convinced that militants carried out Tuesday's attack on the Ayodhya complex. Although three days after the daring attack identities of the militants are yet to be established, highly placed sources in the federal Home Ministry say that all clues gathered so far suggest that the attackers belonged to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). "They have since been buried at Faizabad's Rakabganj burial ground as no one came forward to claim their bodies," the official said.He added that several other clues also point out that in all probability they were Pakistani nationals. "These include their modus operandi and the kind of weapons they were carrying, which were quite similar to when LeT carried out attacks on Ahmedabad's Akshardham Temple, Jammu's Raghunath Temple and the Parliament House building," the official added. He also pointed out that none of the Indian militant groups have so far had suicide squads, something widely used by LeT for greater impact and destroying chances of interrogation if any attacker is arrested. A major difference from the past, however, is that the militants did not carry any documents that could help establish their identities.
Although the Faizabad district police are in possession of a bag the militants had given to driver Rehan Ali and it contained their wallets, they contained nothing to help their identification. Another clue is the tailor's tag on shirts wore by one of the militants. It mentions Khurshed as the tailor's name, which has not been of much help since it did not mention location of the tailoring shop. Interrogation of Rehan so far has also failed to provide any definite clue. Although he is consistent on his assertion that he did not know them and could not understand the language they spoke, which certainly was not Urdu or Punjabi since he understood these languages, he has been inconsistent on where and how he was dumped out of his vehicle, a Mahindra and Mahindra Marshall Jeep, which was blasted by the militants to gain entry into the highly fortified shrine complex. The Home Ministry official said that while Rehan first said that he was forced out of his vehicle at gunpoint, later he said the militants handed him the bag, containing live cartridges of AK-47 and some hand grenades besides their wallets and asked him to flee. He is under police custody and his connections are being probed. The sixth person killed in the attack has already been identified as Ramesh Pandey, a resident of Ayodhya who worked as a guide.