Groping In The Dark

A series of blasts at communally sensitive targets show terrorists are working to a game plan. Security agencies though seem clueless and have no plan to tackle the phenomena.

The calm of the Friday afternoon on May 18 was shattered by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) which ripped through the revered Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad killing nine persons, including four children and injuring 40 others. Five more people died in the police firing that followed the blasts. Hyderabad’s bloodiest terror strike, the ninth such attack in the country in the past 22 months, was followed by the Gorakhpur blasts four days later. If terrorism were a business plan, then it is delivering a result every quarter. It has so far claimed over 500 lives and struck at places associated with the common man—from commuter trains in Mumbai to mosques in Hyderabad and Malegaon. It sees politicians mouthing cliched platitudes after each attack even as intelligence analysts warn of a disturbing complacency that has set in counter-terrorism operations after the resumption of peace talks with Pakistan.

They also indicate that it is a fallacy to believe that there are rogue cells of the ISI at work operating beyond the pale of the Pakistani establishment. “Terror, carefully calibrated by the ISI, has now become an adjunct of Pakistan’s foreign policy designed to keep India talking on Kashmir,” said an intelligence official. The blast was the terrorists’ newest game plan to target religious places and foment communal unrest. There are in fact striking similarities between the Hyderabad bombing and those in Malegaon and Jama Masjid in Delhi last year: choosing Friday congregations to create mass casualties and passing them off as the work of Hindu fundamentalists.

Security agencies suspect the latest bombing to be the handiwork of the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), an offshoot of the Pakistan-based HuJI, and its Hyderabad-born activist Mohammed Abdul Shahed aka Bilal. HuJI was also responsible for last year’s blasts in Varanasi’s Sankat Mochan temple. The HuJI struck first in October 2005, using a Bangladeshi suicide bomber to attack the city police commissioner’s office. It now has at least six sleeper cells in the city and Shahed has close ties with the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). The nature of the improvised explosive and its remote trigger mechanisms—mobile phones rigged to explosives—bear HuJI hallmarks. Operating from Bangladesh and recently sighted in Karachi, Shahed is also believed to have masterminded the smuggling of RDX into Hyderabad last year.

Responding to an INDIA TODAY questionnaire early last year, Home Minister Shivraj Patil had mentioned the spread of terrorism through the hinterland as one of his greatest concerns. A year later, terrorism has become a pan-Indian phenomenon. Patil’s fear has become a reality and yet, the Centre does not seem to have a plan to deter it. This lack of response and a regular intelligence sharing mechanism between the states fails to pre-empt attacks or even solve them. This gives transnational terror kingpins an upper hand. They strike and scoot, leaving the police to nab those involved in the periphery. “Most states see terrorism as a law and order problem,” says an intelligence official. This explains why practically no significant arrests have been made in the terror attacks in the past two years.

The Hyderabad police, for instance, were unaware of the importance of LeT operative Sheikh Sameer alias Sheikh Nayeem arrested by the BSF on the Bangladesh border. Sameer claimed to have smuggled around 20 sleeper agents into India, disclosed his involvement in the Mumbai bombings and hinted at activating sleeper cells in a few places including Hyderabad. The police did not pursue these leads.

Security agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau, tipped the police on the possibility of serious attempts to disturb communal harmony in the city. But these alerts were treated with criminal casualness by the policemen who defused a second unexploded IED with no protective gear and before a large crowd of potential victims. If the Mecca Masjid bombing indicates the ease with which the Islamic terror networks can strike, the lack of a coordinated thrust against them can only embolden them to strike again.

BLASTS FROM THE PAST    Terrorism has become a pan-Indian phenomenon

GORAKHPUR May 2007 TOLL: 10 injured WHERE: Golghar locality WHO DID IT: Unidentified terrorists planted three bombs in tiffin boxes which were then tied to children’s bicycles. STATUS: Under investigation. PANIPAT February 2007 TOLL: 66 dead, 13 injured WHERE: In the Samjhauta Express WHO DID IT: Unidentified terrorists planted two bombs, which had been kept in suitcases in two coaches. STATUS: Unsolved. MALEGAON Sept 2006 TOLL: 40 dead, 312 injured WHERE: Three blasts including one in a mosque. WHO DID IT: Suspected LeT and SIMI terrorists planted IEDs on bicycles. STATUS: Unsolved. MUMBAI July 2006 TOLL: 209 dead, 714 injured WHERE: In six local trains. WHO DID IT: LeT and SIMI activists planted IEDs which they kept in pressure cookers in the trains’ first-class compartments. STATUS: Unsolved. HYDERABAD BLAST May 18, 2007 TOLL: 12 dead, 50 injured WHERE: Mecca Masjid near Charminar. WHO DID IT: Suspected HuJI militants used an IED which was triggered by cell phones. The bomb exploded when people had gathered for the Friday prayers. GROUND ZERO: Mecca Masjid near Charminar smeared with blood DELHI April 2006 TOLL: 14 injured WHERE: Twin blasts inside the Jama Masjid. WHO DID IT: Unidentified militants used crude bombs with mechanical timers. STATUS: Unsolved VARANASI March 2006 TOLL: 21 dead, 62 injured WHERE: At the Sankat Mochan temple WHO DID IT: HuJI militants carried out the attack using IEDs by putting them in pressure cookers. STATUS: Six HuJI militants arrested. DELHI October 2005 TOLL: 62 dead, 155 injured WHERE: At three places in Delhi. WHO DID IT: Unidentified terrorists planted IEDs in three crowded places which went off one by one within 30 minutes. STATUS: Unsolved. AYODHYA July 2005 TOLL: None WHERE: At the disputed Babri Masjid site. WHO DID IT: Unidentified terrorists used AK rifles and grenades to attack the site. STATUS: Attackers killed.

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