Patna: Security around Thawe temple in Gopalganj district has been beefed up in the wake of intelligence reports of possible attack by suspected operatives of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) on the shrine.

The intelligence agencies, in a report sent to the Union home ministry early this week, said some LeT operatives hiding in Gopalganj district, which is close to Uttar Pradesh border, had conducted a recce of the temple a couple of months ago and taken several photographs.

Hundreds of devotees from Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran and other north Bihar districts apart from Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand throng the temple located around 6km from the Gopalganj district headquarters on Gopalganj-Siwan road everyday.

The report revealed that the LeT operative, Abdul Nayeem Sheikh, who was arrested by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) from Varanasi last month, had activated a sleeper cell in Gopalganj-Siwan region and the cell might carry out an attack on Thawe temple.

Nayeem's associate, Bedar Bakht alias Dhannu Raja, was assigned the job. He reportedly provided the photographs of the temple to LeT. Sleuths expressed concern over the presence of about a dozen persons in the temple without valid identity proofs.

The agencies have asked the district authorities to provide identity cards and verify the credentials of those staying in and around the temple. The agencies have stressed the need to issue identity cards to the shopkeepers on the temple premises.

Though senior police officers of the district prefer to maintain a low profile for obvious reasons, sources said sleuths of the investigating agencies were camping in the area to thwart any untoward incident. Additional security forces have been deployed as a precautionary measure.

A senior police officer said Gopalganj superintendent of police Mritunjay Kumar Choudhary has directed the station house officer of Thawe police station to remove illegal encroachments on the road leading to the temple and verify the credentials of the shopkeepers.

Gopalganj Sadar subdivisional police officer (SDPO) said strict surveillance was being maintained on the visitors to the temple. CCTVs have already been installed to keep a watch on the visitors. In addition, a section of armed forces has been deployed as a precautionary measure. "Police are maintaining surveillance of the temple round-the-clock. Apart from this, security is beefed up from time to time," he told The Telegraph over phone on Thursday.

NIA investigation has revealed that Nayeem, who was living in Gopalganj under the fictitious name of Suhail Khan, had received over Rs 1.8 crore from LeT operatives to create sleeper cells in the Gopalganj-Siwan region.

Officials of the bank where Nayeem had opened accounts in the name of Suhail Khan told the NIA that money was received from West Asian countries. "We have already provided details of transactions of his bank accounts. The accounts have been frozen on the directive of the investigating agency," a senior bank official said.

On Thursday, the NIA picked up two suspects for interrogation from Gopalganj's Bhore police station area. On Wednesday, a police team collected details of visitors to a hotel in Siwan district. Sources said some associates of Nayeem had earlier stayed in Siwan by providing fake identity proofs.

The station house officer of Siwan Town police station Subodh Kumar Singh said the police obtained certain information from the employees of the hotel on the directive of the NIA. Sources said Nayeem had stayed in the hotel in April this year.