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Coordinated nature of Mumbai shootings points to shadowy Islamist
Gethin Chamberlain
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday November 26 2008 20.40 GMT
With India in the grip of a wave of terrorist attacks that have claimed more than 200 lives already this year, it was only a question of when, rather than if, Mumbai would be hit.
Despite claims by India's security forces to have rounded up many of those involved in the wave of bombings that struck Delhi in September, there appeared to be little national confidence that the killings were at an end.
It was only on Sunday that the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh announcing the formation of a task force to tackle terrorism - warned of the scale of the threat facing the country.
"I only wish to emphasise here that time is not on our side," he said. "We cannot afford a repetition of the kind of terrorist attacks that have recently taken place in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Guwahati and some other urban centres."
Although tonight's killings involved gunmen rather than the bombs used in the earlier attacks, the degree of co-ordination involved points to the same hand at work.
The most obvious suspect will be a group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen, an offshoot of the banned SIMI (the Students Islamic Movement).
It claimed responsibility for the bombings in Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad and following the Delhi bombings it issued an explicit threat that Mumbai would be next.
In an email its favoured method of communication it accused the ciy's anti-terrorism squad of harassing Muslims.
"You should know that your acts are not at all left unnoticed; rather we are closely keeping an eye on you and just waiting for the proper time to execute your bloodshed," the email warned. "You are already on our hit-list and this time very very seriously."
One name that will be at the forefront of the investigators' minds is that of Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also known as Tauqeer, a Mumbai-educated member of the Indian Mujahideen credited with masterminding several of the previous attacks.
Reports from India's intelligence agencies claim he has been able to use his expertise as a computer engineer to stay one step ahead of his pursuers and to coordinate attacks.
His name also cropped up in the investigation into a series of bombings in Assam, with intelligence agencies claiming to have intercepted several congratulatory emails.
He first came to the attention of the authorities after the 206 train bombings in Mumbai and was suspected of involvement in the Ahmedabad and Delhi attacks.
Figures from India's home ministry show that there have been 64 bomb attacks in the space of six months, killing more than 215 people and injuring 900.
Mumbai itself has been a regular target for terrorists since 1993, with six major attacks since then.
In July 2006 200 people were killed and more than 700 injured in bomb attacks on the city's Western Railway line. Seven bombs exploded within minutes of each other.
In August 2003 46 people died in two explosions and in March 2003 a series of bomb blasts killed 257 people and injured about 700. In that attack the terrorists also targeted hotels, along with the Bombay Stock Exchange, theatres, and a number of other sites.
In the aftermath of the other recent attacks, security sources suggested that both Pakistan and Bangladesh had played a part in assisting the bombers and it seems likely that investigators will again look at possible links with those countries to the latest attacks.
Following the Delhi bombs in September Muslims protested in the national capital, blaming SIMI and demanding that Pakistan abstain from involvement in terrorism in India.
India frequently blames Pakistan for involvement in terrorist activity on its territory, particularly in the contested region of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, the Indian authorities have also acknowledged that the country has its own home-grown terrorist problem.
Maoist Naxalite insurgents have grip on large swathes of the country one estimate suggests they are active in 55 per cent of the landmass and are fighting a long-running and bitter war which has claimed thousands of lives.
On Sunday the prime minister described the Naxalites as the "most serious internal security threat" facing India today.
He warned a conference of the country's most senior police officers that "the inability of intelligence agencies and the police to obtain pinpoint and actionable intelligence on time has enabled these outfits to carry out some high-profile attacks."
Gethin Chamberlain
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday November 26 2008 20.40 GMT
With India in the grip of a wave of terrorist attacks that have claimed more than 200 lives already this year, it was only a question of when, rather than if, Mumbai would be hit.
Despite claims by India's security forces to have rounded up many of those involved in the wave of bombings that struck Delhi in September, there appeared to be little national confidence that the killings were at an end.
It was only on Sunday that the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh announcing the formation of a task force to tackle terrorism - warned of the scale of the threat facing the country.
"I only wish to emphasise here that time is not on our side," he said. "We cannot afford a repetition of the kind of terrorist attacks that have recently taken place in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Guwahati and some other urban centres."
Although tonight's killings involved gunmen rather than the bombs used in the earlier attacks, the degree of co-ordination involved points to the same hand at work.
The most obvious suspect will be a group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen, an offshoot of the banned SIMI (the Students Islamic Movement).
It claimed responsibility for the bombings in Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad and following the Delhi bombings it issued an explicit threat that Mumbai would be next.
In an email its favoured method of communication it accused the ciy's anti-terrorism squad of harassing Muslims.
"You should know that your acts are not at all left unnoticed; rather we are closely keeping an eye on you and just waiting for the proper time to execute your bloodshed," the email warned. "You are already on our hit-list and this time very very seriously."
One name that will be at the forefront of the investigators' minds is that of Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also known as Tauqeer, a Mumbai-educated member of the Indian Mujahideen credited with masterminding several of the previous attacks.
Reports from India's intelligence agencies claim he has been able to use his expertise as a computer engineer to stay one step ahead of his pursuers and to coordinate attacks.
His name also cropped up in the investigation into a series of bombings in Assam, with intelligence agencies claiming to have intercepted several congratulatory emails.
He first came to the attention of the authorities after the 206 train bombings in Mumbai and was suspected of involvement in the Ahmedabad and Delhi attacks.
Figures from India's home ministry show that there have been 64 bomb attacks in the space of six months, killing more than 215 people and injuring 900.
Mumbai itself has been a regular target for terrorists since 1993, with six major attacks since then.
In July 2006 200 people were killed and more than 700 injured in bomb attacks on the city's Western Railway line. Seven bombs exploded within minutes of each other.
In August 2003 46 people died in two explosions and in March 2003 a series of bomb blasts killed 257 people and injured about 700. In that attack the terrorists also targeted hotels, along with the Bombay Stock Exchange, theatres, and a number of other sites.
In the aftermath of the other recent attacks, security sources suggested that both Pakistan and Bangladesh had played a part in assisting the bombers and it seems likely that investigators will again look at possible links with those countries to the latest attacks.
Following the Delhi bombs in September Muslims protested in the national capital, blaming SIMI and demanding that Pakistan abstain from involvement in terrorism in India.
India frequently blames Pakistan for involvement in terrorist activity on its territory, particularly in the contested region of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, the Indian authorities have also acknowledged that the country has its own home-grown terrorist problem.
Maoist Naxalite insurgents have grip on large swathes of the country one estimate suggests they are active in 55 per cent of the landmass and are fighting a long-running and bitter war which has claimed thousands of lives.
On Sunday the prime minister described the Naxalites as the "most serious internal security threat" facing India today.
He warned a conference of the country's most senior police officers that "the inability of intelligence agencies and the police to obtain pinpoint and actionable intelligence on time has enabled these outfits to carry out some high-profile attacks."
