2002 Raghunath Temple bombings refers to two fidayeen attacks in 2002 on the Raghunath Temple in Jammu in India. Built by Maharaja Ranbir Singh in 1860, the Raghunath temple is dedicated to Hindu God Rama.
March attack
The first attack occurred on 30 March 2002 when two suicide bombers attacked the temple. Eleven persons including three security personnel were killed and 20 were injured.
The attack occurred around 10:20 AM when the terrorists arrived and fired at the guards killing them on the spot. They then stormed the temple, threw a grenade and fired indiscriminately at the worshippers. After expending his ammunition one of the attackers who was wearing a suicide vest blew himself up. Then Minister of State for External Affairs of India, Omar Abdullah, blamed Pakistan for the terrorist attacks on the Raghunath temple in Jammu and ruled out withdrawing troops from the border, saying Islamabad had done nothing to warrant it.
November attack
The fidayeen suicide squad attacked the temple second time on 24 November 2002when two suicide bombers stormed the temple and killed fourteen devotees and injured 45 others.Witnesses said terrorists hurled grenades and fired indiscriminately on the heavily guarded Raghunath temple.
India blamed a Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, for the attack. Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani of India blamed the recent release by the government of Pakistan of the chief of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed for the attack.
The personnel of Central Reserve Police Force Yatindra Nath Rai, Assistant Commandant, Dev Singh, Head Constable, E.G. Rao, Head Constable, T.A.Singh, Constable, and Late K.K. Pandey, Constable displayed conspicuous gallantry, courage and devotion to duty of a high order.
Late K K Pandey was posthumously awarded President's Police Medal for Gallantry. Yatindra Nath Rai, Dev Singh, E.G.Rao and T.A. Singh were awarded Police Medal for Gallantry
https://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/a...ple/index.html
https://www.rediff.com/news/2006/oct/31raghu.htm
Citing lack of evidence, a court in Jammu has acquitted all six accused in the 2002 Raghunath temple terror attack case, in which 11 people were killed, saying a majority of the prosecution witnesses failed to identify any of the accused.
Principal Sessions Judge (Jammu) Subhash Chander Gupta on Monday cleared them of the charges while pointing out that the investigative agency has failed to submit adequate evidence in the case of the suicide attack on the temple and Raghunath Bazar on March 30, 2002.
The judge, after hearing public prosecutor E A Tak and defence counsel B R Gupta observed that there were 84 witnesses in support of the chargesheet provided by the investigating agency, out of which 67, who deposed, failed to identify any of the accused.
"There is not an iota of evidence in their statements against the present accused as none of these witnesses named any of the accused except stating about the two killed militants," he observed.
Referring to statements of four policemen -- Inspector Deepak Raina, ASI Nazir Ahmed and constables Faqir Chand and Mohd Aslam -- the judge said they only spoke about details provided by one Virinder Sharma, one of those arrested in the case, and recovery of huge quantities of arms and ammunition. But nowhere their statements showed association of the accused with Sharma, he said.
The judge also issued a notice to the investigating officer, DSP Abdul Razakh Khan, on why Sharma did not figure in the list of accused submitted by the investigating agency though the witnesses had identified him as the one behind the smuggling of arms and ammunitions.
The court also directed the IO to send a copy of this order to Director General of Police. "There is absolutely no evidence against the accused persons to frame charges and report submitted under section 173 of CRPC Act seems to be a report prepared in air and not based on any slightest supporting evidence," the judge said.
"It speaks about the cold manner in which the investigation has been conducted by the investigation officer. The then SSP of Jammu seems to have acted as a rubber stamp without bothering to go through the statements of any of the witnesses," he observed.
A suicide attack took place in Ragunath temple in Jammu on March 30, 2002. According to the police report, two armed militants hurled grenades at the busy Ragunath Bazar, causing damage to some shops and vehicles, before entering the temple where they started firing indiscriminately, killing 11 people.
Both the militants were killed in the ensuing encounter with security forces. A case was registered under Prevention and Suppression of Sabotage Act and also under Prevention of Terrorism Act.
