Theories on fidayeen origins kept changing

AHMEDABAD: In the wake of the Supreme Court's acquittal of six persons in the Akshardham terror attack case, the moot question has arisen again — where did the fidayeen come from?
Immediately after the terror attack, the city crime branch was chided by then in-charge city police commissioner Chittranjan Singh for being 'enthusiastic' in identifying the origins of the two fidayeen without having gathered any proof.The probe was then assigned to the Gujarat anti-terrorist squad.
Immediately after the attack that killed 33 persons, the city crime branch floated theories about the identities of the two terrorists and claimed that they were from Pakistan. They were identified as Murtuza Hafiz Nasir and Ashraf Mohammed Faruk. Chand Khan, alias Shanmiya, who brought the duo to Gujarat from Kashmir, said in his confession that they were Shakil and Abdullah.
However, the controversy was about their native land. Just two days after the gunmen were killed, crime branch sleuths claimed in an FIR that the Murtuza and Ashraf were from Peshawar and Lahore respectively. This FIR was lodged on February 27 upon the arrest of Sameerkhan Pathan, who was killed in an allegedly fake encounter in October 2002.
After Pathan was killed, Chittranjan Singh pulled up the crime branch for making false claims about the origins of the fidayeen. In a letter to the crime branch chief, P P Pandey, on October 22, 2002, Singh wrote, "The FIR reveals that the two accused killed in the Akshardham attack were from Peshawar and Lahore. No evidence in this regard has been gathered by the investigating agency ATS till date. So, on basis of what evidence, the government's complaint mentions this information?"
While this has not been resolved till date, the SC has rapped the crime branch for coming up with three versions in this regard and not being able to prove anything conclusively. The confessional statement by a convict, Mufti Abdul Kayum, revealed that Murtuza was from Lahore and Ashraf was from Rawalpindi.
The other accused, Chand Khan, had said that the duo belonged to Kashmir and had travelled to Gujarat along with him. But during the trial, an NSG official, Major Jaydeep Lamba, told the court that the terrorists were from Atok in Pakistan, though letters recovered from dead bodies did not mention anything about this.