Terror in India

Bomb attacks raise new Indian fears By Siddharth Srivastava NEW DELHI - Indian officials have pointed their fingers at the "usual suspects" - Pakistan and Bangladesh - after the twin bomb blasts that killed at least 43 and injured more than 100 people this Sunday at India's cyber-city of Hyderabad. But security officials are also speaking of a new front of terror infiltration via southern India that makes other technology and manufacturing hubs such as Bangalore and Chennai particularly vulnerable. The victims were gathered at a popular street food stall and an amusement park, with many engineering students as visitors, when the blasts occurred. Television channels have been showing gory pictures of the dead and injured who were out for an evening of leisure and entertainment in the city, capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Security officials say at least 20 more bombs fitted with timers have been found at various public locations in the city. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil have spoken of a "foreign hand" involved in the blasts. This is the second attack in recent months in Hyderabad, a city of 7 million people with a 40% Muslim population - terrorists attacked the historic Mecca Mosque in Hyderabad, killing 12 and injuring more than 60 people. Indian intelligence agencies say a new terror channel has emerged that begins in Pakistan, passes through Male in Maldives and then goes to the southern Indian cities that have direct flights to Male. Maldives is an Islamic state, and in the recent past traditional moderate views have been tossed aside because of an increasingly insecure President Abdul Gayoom, who has begun patronizing madrassas (seminaries) that foment extremists. Gayoom has ruled Maldives for almost three decades. Indian police have also been speaking about a proliferation of extremist sleeper cells in Hyderabad, as also evidenced by the recent attack on controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen in the city. The latest blasts point toward the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that have been used in many other serious terror attacks in India over the past few years, including the Mumbai train blasts and the Diwali attacks in New Delhi. Ammonium-nitrate-based IEDs cause maximum shrapnel damage within a close range and have been used by terrorists to target areas packed with people. The use of remote-controlled timer devices demonstrates a reasonable level of sophistication and coordination. Such mechanisms were used in the Madrid train bombings in 2004 and the Bali attack in 2005. Police say one of the suspected groups is the Taliban-inspired Bangladesh outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), which enjoys political patronage as well as links with al-Qaeda. Shahed Bilal, a native of Hyderabad associated with the HuJI, is said in some police quarters to be the mastermind. Bilal is supposed to have close links with Pakistan-based terror groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba that have orchestrated several attacks in India. Reports suggest that other explosive material used - TNT and RDX - had been procured from Bangladesh. The Hyderabad attacks follow a spate of terrorist violence. In the past year or so, more than 300 people have been killed in bombings in India. These include the coordinated train blasts in Mumbai, killing 200, and 30 dead in a bombing near a mosque in the city of Malegaon, central India. In February, more than 60 passengers were killed in a firebombing of the peace train that runs between India and Pakistan. A report in The Times of India said India has faced the brunt of terror attacks globally and ranks only below war-ravaged Iraq in the numbers killed. Since 2004, India has lost more lives to terrorist violence than all of North America, South America, Central America, Europe and Eurasia combined. All of these areas lost a total of 3,280 people in terrorist attacks between January 2004 and March this year, while India alone has lost 3,674 lives. Other recent strikes have included temple attacks in Benaras in March last year (killing more than 30) and the fidayeen (suicide) attack at the Akshardham Temple in Gujarat in September 2002, killing close to 40 and injuring more than 80 Hindu devotees. The Jama Masjid in New Delhi was a target in April 2006 in which 15 people were wounded. More than 70 Hindus shopping during festivities were killed in New Delhi in October 2005. Many experts say a much bigger game plan is being played out and have advanced several theories. They have linked the attacks to attempts to sabotage the India-Pakistan peace process reining in India's economic progress, and inspiring terror cells around the world desperate to make their presence felt and cause alarm. While Western nations have become strict with their security measures, India, which is seen as increasingly aligned to Western powers, especially the United States, has become a soft target. Hemmed in by two nations, Pakistan and Bangladesh, with a dubious record of taking on terrorism, orchestrating attacks in a vast country with a huge impoverished population is much easier then providing water-tight security. Observers say that such attacks also keep the terror cells well oiled by the underground funds that flow in from secret sympathizers. By ensuring huge casualties with minimum investment in terms of finance, planning and personnel, terror attacks in India easily catch the attention of the global community. Terrorists have also attacked places of worship, in which both Hindus and Muslim have been victims, which some say is a distorted attempt to show the existence of Hindu terrorist groups capable of fomenting communal clashes. Investigators are surprised at the alacrity with which visuals of the earlier Hyderabad blast were telecast on a Bangladeshi television channel whose antecedents are not very well known. TV channels around the world quickly picked up these images. It is reasoned that the terrorists in Hyderabad actually filmed the blasts and passed them on using multi-media messaging in their cellular phones. India has already been under fire from anti-outsourcing sections in the West because of the involvement of Bangalore-based Indian doctors and an engineer in recent failed terror plots in London and Glasgow. This has put India's business process outsourcing industry on the defensive. Failed Glasgow suicide bomber Kafeel Ahmed worked for Bangalore-based Infotech Enterprises. This incident was the first in which Indians had been involved in an international terror incident since the blowing up of an Air India flight from Canada more than two decades ago. The British plot brought into focus an elaborate network of indoctrination via the Internet that makes Indian technology workers particularly vulnerable. ==================================================================================== Relatives of blast victims visit a hospital morgue in Hyderabad where the dead are lined up to be identified, in the wee hours of Sunday (August 26) Hyderabad's worst ever terror attack in which twin blasts on Saturday night (August 25) left at least 42 dead and over 60 injured suggests a worrying trend, coming as it does just months after the Mecca Masjid blasts in the city. This clearly shows that South India is the new target of terrorists.' Over three months after Hyderabad witnessed terror in the form of explosions inside their oldest mosque - disruptionists have struck again. On Saturday twin blasts rocked Hyderabad, the first of them took place in crowded Lumbini Park which is located close to the State Secretariat, and the second at the Gokul Chat area of the city. The first blast took place at around 8 pm on Saturday evening and the second just 15 minutes later. Speaking on the incident on Sunday morning (August 26) to the press after convening an emergency cabinet meeting, Chief Minister YSR Reddy said "external terrosrist organisations" were responsible for the attack, and announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the deceased as well as government jobs to those families who lost their bread earners. He also congratulated police for recovering two more live bombs through organised search operations throughout the city, which averted further disaster and could help in catching the perpetrators. The Special Task Force was still deployed in the operation, he said. An All Party Meeting has been called for later in day and Reddy said the opposition would be taken into confidence and its inputs and help sought in all terror-related isssues. "This sort of blasts are a result of nefarious elements. The cabinet unanimously passed a resolution condemning the terrorists who perpetrated the acts, and condoled the bereaved families in their hour or distress...The cabinet placed on record the exemplary behaviour of all the citizens of state who with all their might stood by government in bringing normalcy so very quickly," said Reddy. He also said the government wanted the opposition to "stand with them as one." "It is the responsibility of one and all not only to condemn the ghastly act, but also to try to bring about normalcy. We ask everyone concerend to act with patience, not to create any rumour," he said. Home Minister Shivraj Patil was slated to visit Hyderabad to assess the situation later today. Earlier today, senior BJP leader L K Advani also paid a visit to the Lumbini Park, and met the victims of the blast. Criticising the attack, the state BJP has called for a bandh in Hyderabad tomorrow. Meanwhile a team of ATS officers from Mumbai are also expected to assist the local police in Hyderabad. Sea of tragedy The blast at Gokul Chat shop in the Kothi locality of Hyderabad turned the popular weekend haunt into a sea of tragedy. The deafening explosion ripped across the restaurant killing 39 people on the spot and leaving scores injured. Barely were emergency services waking up to the tragedy when another powerful blast rocked the crowded open air auditorium in Lumbini Park across the state Secretariat in the heart of the city while a laser show was underway, killing 9 people and injuring dozens. The Chief Minister of AP YSR Reddy has called the incident an "act of terror". The CM also sounded a note of caution, asking people to stay calm. In the meantime a red alert has been sounded in the Capital and main cities of South India. "The preliminary information suggests that this is definitely a terrorist activity, we are trying to go into the details, but in the meantime I request everyone to obeserve calm and not to get agitated. The government will try and see to it that every possible effort is done to restore peace and restore calm," said the CM. Authorities suspect the blasts were triggered by cell phone timers as preliminary intelligence reports point to the same group involved in the Mecca Masjid Blasts - the Bangladesh based HUJI. "This is a gruesome incident, but we will definitely find out the culprits and we will make the city safe from terrorist elements. In all likelihood both (blasts) are the work of the same people and it is definitely a terrorist attack," announced the Police Commissioner. A day later Union home Minister Shivraj Patil visited the site and condemned the incident and said, "We will take timely action according to the basis of our information. Our country is so big and things are happening in such a manner that at all times even if we have the information that something is likely to happen we do not know where and when it is likely to happen." More 'live' bombs discovered A bigger disaster was however averted when police recovered 3 live bombs from separate places in the city including one more in the Lumbini Park auditorium itself. The other bombs were detected in Dilsukhnagar area underneath a foot overbridge with a timer set for 9.30 pm, and at the Venkataramana Theatre at Kachigudu locality. Sriprakash Jaiswal, Minister of State for Home, said the state government was on a high alert and those who were responsible were being traced. "We appeal that peace and harmony be maintained and people should not get panicked. It is an attack by a terrorist organisation, the government is taking this incident seriously and we will see to it that those responsible are taught a lesson," he promised. A red alert has been sounded in Hyderabad, Secunderabad, neighbouring Karnataka and the national capital Delhi in the wake of the blasts. New leads emerge in probe Even as investigations are on in full swing to probe into the blasts, there are new leads emerging that clearly indicate that the blasts were indeed high intensity explosions. Police say timers were used to detonate the blasts - and believe a Quartz clock was used to trigger the blasts. A 9-volt battery was used to increase the impact, while police believe explosive material was fitted into plastic containers with ball bearings Police also claim the explosives used were Ammonium nitrate amulsifier in slurry form - these explosives were manufactured under the brand name 'Neo gel' by Amin Chemicals based in Nagpur. Police believe the blasts handiwork of a trained terrorist - police defused bombs from 3 separate places in the city last evening including one in the Lumbini Park. In fact, police claim to have got some leads from the unexploded bombs recovered near Venkatadri Theatre in Dilsukhnagar. Police suspect sleeper cell of HUJI-JeM to be behind the blasts. Bangladesh-based militant HUJI's Bilal is suspected to be the main module operator. Police claim explosives used in blasts were similar to those employed in Mecca Masjid explosions in May this year. Twenty people have been detained from Hyderabad for questioning. Pplice are also looking at some other developments - that of the recovery of Rs 2.36 crores fake Indian currency from four people. The currency has been traced to Pakistan. Who is Bilal? The face of HUJI is none other than Mohammad Abdul Sahed alias Bilal. Bilal took over the command of HUJI on October 12, 2005, has been on the list of most wanted terrorists. According to Sources, he is the key suspect in Saturday's twin attacks. Bilal is also wanted for the blasts on the Samjhauta Express and is said to have been the mastermind behind the Mecca mosque explosions in Hyderabad in May this year. He also allegedly masterminded a suicide attack on the Special Task Force's headquarters in Hyderabad that left one police personnel dead. Bilal has been instrumental in sending young men for arms training to Pakistan through Dhaka and some Gulf states. The CBI has already procured a red-corner notice from Interpol against Bilal. He is believed to be in Karachi at present. ======================================================================================= sree