UNRAVELLING GUJARAT TERRORISM MYSTERY

by M RAMA RAO
New Delhi (Syndicate Features): August 17 arrest of Mufti Abu Bashir, and eight others in connection with the string of 17 explosions that rocked Ahmedabad on July 26, and the August 19 detention of 13 persons allegedly involved with the May 13 blasts in Jaipur leave as many questions as they answer.

Gujarat police claim that the so called Indian Mujahideen is the good old SIMI - Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). ‘Remove the first letter and the last letter. You get IM which is really a pseudonym’, the state police chief says. But some experts believe that Indian Mujahideen is a breakaway militant faction of SIMI. Another view is that it is a cooperative effort between Kashmiri militant groups, SIMI and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) or Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HUJI). Any of these three theories could be true.

“Kashmiri groups have traditionally used a number of names in an attempt to sow confusion -- confusion further aided by the fact that the Kashmiri militants tend to be a fractious bunch. Furthermore, in general, people arrested by the police for violent undertakings who are part of a particular organization will commonly deny membership in an effort to protect their fellow members from government action. This murky milieu makes it very difficult to sort out the true identity of the group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen”, Fred Burton and Scott Stewart write in their just released report titled “India: arrests, revelations and implications’.

The report by the Texas based Strategic Forecasting, Stratfor, goes on to say: “What we do know, however, is that some people who were at some point affiliated with SIMI do appear to be connected with these attacks and that the attacks were claimed by the Indian Mujahideen. We also know that some SIMI members have been closely linked to other Kashmiri militant groups such as LeT and HUJI”.
What the report left unsaid is the fact that the breakthrough came at a time the government is at sixes and sevens on the question of banning SIMI. The tribunal constituted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act did not see any merit in the February 7 ban on the basis of a ‘dossier’ government had presented. Fretting and fuming the home ministry rushed to the apex court and obtained a stay (Aug 6) on the tribunal order even as the Congress allies – SP and RJD openly declared, ‘We see no reason for the ban (on SIMI)’.

In a refreshing move (departure?), the Union Government made ample use of the ‘Gujarat evidence’ in its fresh affidavit. ‘If SIMI is not curbed, public order will suffer’, the government told the court presenting a list of over 350 terrorist –related cases registered in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal since 2001 and the arrest of over 1400 SIMI cadres.

IM had claimed responsibility for both the Ahmedabad and Jaipur attacks, as well as attacks involving eight IEDs that occurred on July 25 in Bangalore. In a series of e-mails sent to the news papers and TV channels, the militant group said its blasts were intended to demolish the faith of the “infidels” and to take revenge for the 2002 pogrom in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat. In addition to these claims, a number of operational similarities tie the Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Bangalore incidents together. Also with the failed July 29 attempt to trigger more than 20 IEDs in Surat. Sleuths opine that different bomb makers were at work in Ahmedabad and Surat. A few of the devices recovered in Surat had small gas canisters affixed to them, an element not seen in the other attacks. The timers employed in the Surat devices were stand-alone integrated circuit timers, whereas the Ahmedabad devices used simple mechanical timers.

Stratfor doesn’t buy the theory that the Surat devices were dummies intentionally constructed not to explode. Why should the militants plant so many devices if they did not want to have a big bang advertisement of their potential? “From the number and design of the Surat devices, it is clear their designers clearly wanted them to function and ultimately cause casualties”, opine Stratfor experts.

SIMILARITIES WITH B’DESH

Surat case has a resemblance to what had happened on Aug 17, 2005 in Bangladesh. Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkat ul Jihad al Islami (Huji) and other Islamist groups staged 459 simultaneous blasts in 63 of the 64 districts across the country in a matter of thirty minutes. Just as in Ahmedabad and Surat, all these were low intensity explosions. Bangladesh authorities are still grappling with the HUJI mystery and its grenade attack that damaged the left ear of Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina a year earlier on August 21, 2004.

The Gujarat-Bangladesh similarity has two clear messages.

One ISI has perfected a low cost-high intensity terror weapon namely multiple, small devices hidden in bags or boxes, placed in congested areas and activated by timers. It tested the technique in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow, Bangalore and Hyderabad last year and now in Ahmedabad to devastating effect.

Second, ISI and its foot soldiers are comfortable in criss-crossing the porous India-Bangladesh border. Put differently, Pakistan agency managed by that country’s army has done a very thorough job of hiding its hand to the glee of foreign office in Islamabad, which continues to taunt Delhi for evidence of ISI involvement in India.

Bashir’s arrest is undoubtedly a big blow to SIMI. This Madrassa teacher from Hyderabad took over the mantle of the outfit five months back after SIMI general secretary Safdar Nagori landed in the police net. Riazuddin Nasir, alias Mohammed Ghouse, who was arrested in Hubli in November 2007, had spilled the beans on Nagori and led the police to the SIMI training camp at Choral (MP).

Another development is a cause for concern to the security establishment of the country. It is the IT connection.

How did the IM mange to send the e-mail soon after the Jaipur and blasts. The official view thus far is that Bashir associate, Taufique Bilal ( also known as Abdul Subhan Qureshi), had sent the mail after hacking into the Hi-Fi based Internet connection of Kenneth Haywood, an American working with a Navi Mumbai-based IT firm, Campbell White. An electronic engineer, Bilal worked for Wipro in Bangalore and two other IT companies in Hyderabad and Mumbai. Surprisingly, police did not clamp any restrictions on Haywood’s movements. Only a ‘look out’ notice has been issued saying ‘he is required to be in the country’ to aid on-going investigation. Yet, on Aug 10, he slipped out of India.

As the ‘desi’ sleuths and Stratfor experts point out, what has been unravelled is only a tip of the iceberg. The operational ability of SIMI is not affected by the few arrests in Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan. There are many more trained SIMI militants on the loose. For them, large al Qaeda–type attacks will be a short leap unless India puts its best foot forward, and addresses the menace of terrorism in a bi-partisan manner. (Syndicate Features)