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India-Pakistan

Rahul Gandhi is right on Indian jihadists

2013-11-09

[The Hindu] ... From placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! Mumbai resident Sadiq Israr Sheikh's testimony to police, we know some on SIMI's radical fringes were craving for direct action. Born in 1978 to working class parents from the north Indian town of Azamgarh, Sheikh had grown up in Mumbai's Cheetah Camp housing project. In 1996, he began attending SIMI gatherings -- polite tea-and-biscuits affairs that he would eventually storm out of, frustrated by endless discussion. Late in 2001, he ran into a distant relative, Salim Islahi, the son of a Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... -linked holy man who was himself expelled from the organization for his extremism. Islahi, later controversially killed by police, allegedly arranged for Sheikh to travel to Pakistain for training in September 2001. His story wasn't uncommon: other SIMI friends like computer engineer Abdul Subhan Qureshi made the journey to the Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... 's camps at about the same time. From 2002, when this core leadership returned to India, it found fertile ground: Gujarat ...where rioting seems to be a traditional passtime... persuaded younger recruits that India's claims to secularism and democracy were a sham. SIMI's wellsprings gave birth to small jihadist cells across India. Peedical Abdul Shibly and Yahya Kamakutty, highly successful computer professionals, are alleged to have prepared to carry out attacks in Bangalore. Feroze Ghaswala, another alleged Indian Mujahideen A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor... recruit, told police he volunteered for joining jihad training after witnessing the mass burial of 40 Gujarat riot victims. Kerala men trained in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmire with the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Zabiuddin Ansari, from Maharashtra's Aurangabad, famously ended up in the 26/11 control room. From the investigations of the Patna and Bodh Gaya bombings, we know the recruitment continues, often carried out by old SIMI cadre, drawing on an anger which every new communal confrontation fuels. "You have provoked the Mujahideen to massacre you and your five-and-a-half crore multitude of pathetic infidels," read the bitter Indian Mujahideen manifesto released after the 2008 serial bombings in New Delhi, "who tortured us in the post-Godhra riots asking 'where is your Allah'?" "Here He Is" 'Purely Indian' It is interesting that the Indian Mujahideen never dropped its national identification from the name. In the 2007 manifesto, it said this: "We are not any foreign mujahideen nor we have any attachment with neighbouring countries. We are purely Indian." In a later manifesto, the group called itself "the home-grown jihadi militia of Islam." Recently tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! Indian Mujahideen operative Ahmed Siddibapa, also known as Yasin Bhatkal, is reported to have told the National Investigations Agency that he refused to train in Pakistain for these reasons. The India of an Indian jihad shouldn't surprise us. From the work of chronicler Zain al-Din Maabari, we know self-described jihadis waged war against Portugese colonial forces more than 200 years ago. The eminent historian, Ayesha Jalal, has shown the notion of jihad was an important ideological theme through the 18th and 19th centuries. Following the 2008 bombings in Delhi, the Indian Mujahideen actually invoked this heritage: "We have carried out this attack in the memory of two most eminent Mujahids of India: Sayyed Ahmed Shaheed and Shah Ismail Shaheed, who had raised the glorious banner of Jihad against the disbelievers in this very city of Delhi." Like all other modern ideologies, Islamism offers believers a road map for action. It has been a fringe tendency, drawing far fewer supporters among Indian Musselmens than the Congress, the Left and perhaps even the BJP -- but its durability points to deep tears in our social fabric. Investigations of the Patna and Bodh Gaya blasts have shown the obvious: even as police and intelligence services have registered important successes in the battle against jihadist terrorism, the fractures in our society have enabled recruits to be drawn from a new generation. Pakistain's intelligence services and their jihadist proxies will exploit the dysfunctions in our polity, until India's political life addresses them. For years now, it has suited a wide spectrum of Indian political opinion to simply deny this problem exists. The forces behind the silence are remarkably wide -- among them, Hindu nationalists, unwilling to acknowledge their role in giving birth to jihadist terror; opportunists trying to cash in on Musselmen fears; ideologues sympathetic to Islamists. Mr. Gandhi's intervention, inchoate and fumbling, won't solve the problem. It does, though, open the door to the truth-telling that is a precondition for healing. For that, India ought to be grateful.

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India-Pakistan

Mumbai attacks: Was computer expert aged 36 the mastermind?

2008-11-29

UNCERTAINTY is a key weapon in the armoury of Islamic fundamentalist terror. As investigators, experts and analysts grope for the truth, someone somewhere is taking satisfaction from the horrified confusion the Mumbai attacks have caused. Analysts are divided over whether the hand of al-Qaeda can be detected. The only claim of responsibility comes from a group that may not even exist: an e-mail message claiming responsibility and sent to Indian media on Wednesday night said the attackers were from a group called Deccan Mujahideen. Deccan is a neighborhood of the Indian city of Hyderabad. The word also describes the central and southern region of India, which is dominated by the Deccan Plateau. Mujahideen is the commonly used Arabic word for holy warriors. But Sajjan Gohel, a security expert in London, called it a "front name" and said the group was "nonexistent." Alex Neill, head of the Royal United Services Institute's Asia security programme, believes the attacks were probably carried out by local jihadists linked to the radical Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), a banned Islamic fundamentalist organisation which advocates the "liberation of India" by converting it to an Islamic state. One possible mastermind and Simi member is Abdul Subhan Qureshi, a 36-year-old computer engineer suspected of being behind multiple bombings in Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad earlier this year. Qureshi, also known as Tauqeer, is from Mumbai and his expertise with internet security could have played a vital part in pulling off such an ambitious plot, said Mr Neill. "He is an IT whizz-kid so it is quite possible he is the person investigators will be concentrating on. This is a great embarrassment to the Indian security services because it has been pulled off right under their noses." Simi has declared jihad on India, the aim of which is to establish Dar-ul-Islam by forcefully converting everyone to Islam. Mr Neill said Deccan Muhajideen would be a militant offshoot of Simi which has carried out attacks across India. He added: "The perpetrators have obviously been highly trained and would have been sent to al-Qaeda training camps to prepare. I would be astonished if any of them are from Britain -- they were probably recruited from the Mumbai region." He reckons up to 100 terrorists would have been involved in the planning and execution of the attack and said it was surprising they had managed to keep it a secret. Other analysts say that while it is not clear whether the Deccan Mujahideen claim is genuine, the attacks may have been carried out by a group called the Indian Mujahideen -- also an offshoot of Simi and blamed by police for almost every major bomb attack in India, including explosions on commuter trains in Mumbai two years ago that killed 187 people. Police said the Indian Mujahideen may also include former members of Bangladeshi militant group, Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami. In an e-mail in September, the group denounced Mumbai's police anti-terrorist squad (ATS), accusing them of harassing Muslims. "If this is the degree your arrogance has reached, and if you think that by these stunts you can scare us, then let the Indian Mujahideen warn all the people of Mumbai that whatever deadly attacks Mumbaikars will face in future, their responsibility would lie with the Mumbai ATS and their guardians," it said. The Mumbai attacks appear to have been carefully coordinated, well-planned and involved a large number of attackers. A high level of sophistication has also been a hallmark of previous attacks by the Indian Mujahideen. The Mumbai attacks also focused clearly on tourist targets, including two luxury hotels and a famous cafe. In May, the Indian Mujahideen made a specific threat to attack tourist sites in India unless the government stopped supporting the United States in the international arena. The threat was made in an e-mail claiming responsibility for bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the tourist city of Jaipur. The e-mail declared "open war against India" and included the serial number of a bicycle used in one bombing. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has blamed a group with "external linkages" for the attacks. He said: "It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country." He could have been referring to either Pakistan or Bangladesh, which has also been accused by India of harbouring militant groups. Some security specialists believe there is likely to have been a degree of inspiration from, or link with, external groups allied to al-Qaeda, such as the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which wants to see India expelled from Kashmir. Eyewitnesses have reported hostage-takers speaking with a Kashmiri accent. However, Lashkar-e-Taiba yesterday denied any role in the Mumbai attacks. Henry Wilkinson, a senior analyst with Janusian Security Risk Management, a London-based consultancy, said the tactics are different from the more common, post-9/11 attacks seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, but bear similar hallmarks. He said: "It's very interesting that they didn't go in using car bombs; it was more of a direct armed assault on a city. It's very reminiscent of the attacks in Saudi Arabia in 2003, when the gunmen were going around trying to find Westerners and kill them."

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India-Pakistan

2 Suspects in Recent New Delhi Attack Killed in Raid

2008-10-30

Two suspected bombers were shot dead during a dramatic midmorning gun battle in the capital city Friday when authorities raided an alleged hideout of men who carried out last week's serial bombings that killed 23 people. One police officer died and several others were badly injured in the 11 a.m. operation, which put an already rattled city back on edge. A third suspect was captured, and two others managed to escape, police said. One of the dead suspects was identified only as Atif; police said he took a lead role in the Delhi blasts and bombings in three other cities this year. He was allegedly a close associate of Abdul Subhan Qureshi, alias Tauqeer, a computer expert and member of a controversial Islamic students' group. Authorities said they had received a tip that the house in the Muslim Jamia Naga neighborhood was used as a den for members of the Indian Mujahideen. The group asserted responsibility for the Sept. 13 blasts in New Delhi, as well as serial bombings in the western city of Ahmedabad on July 26, which killed about 50 people, and the May 13 bombing in the northern tourist city of Jaipur, which left up to 80 people dead. The government has come under increasing pressure during an election year to curb the attacks, which have grown more frequent. This week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that there were "vast gaps" in intelligence and announced that the government would be recruiting thousands more police officers and establishing a new counterterrorism center. Singh said that Indians, not foreigners, may have been behind the New Delhi attacks. It was a departure from the blame that authorities usually pin on Pakistan- or Bangladesh-based militant groups. The Indian Mujahideen was little known before this year's bombings. Some police say it could be a front for the Students' Islamic Movement of India, or SIMI, which was banned in 2001, but most intelligence experts say there is insufficient information to understand the group's role. Television talk shows celebrated Friday's operation as a big win for police. But many commentators pointed out that previous arrests of radical leaders have not stopped attacks or led to convictions. "In the 11 major blasts since 2001, the police have not been able to get a single proper conviction," Rajdeep Sardesai, editor in chief of the popular IBN network, wrote in a commentary in the Hindustan Times. "Arrests are made of the usual suspects, months later they are let off because of the shocking lack of any proper evidence." Witnesses told reporters that policemen armed with automatic rifles and pistols surrounded the suspects' apartment, located next to a mosque, just before Friday prayers. Hundreds of women and children fled when the gun battle began. Police recovered an AK-47 assault rifle and two pistols along with wooden frames and other components that were similar to materials used in the small bombs that exploded in the capital last week, Delhi Police Chief Y.S. Dadwal said. The dead policeman was identified as a high-ranking special forces officer, Mohan Chand Sharma, 44. Some Muslims in the neighborhood chanted anti-government slogans.

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India-Pakistan

AP police files case against Tauqeer, Abu Basher

2008-09-27

The noose was further tightened around top SIMI leader Safdar Nagori and alleged brain behind Indian Mujahideen(IM) Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer with Andhra Pradesh filing cases against them and eight others on the charge of conspiring to wage a war against the state by planning terror camps. The case was registered based on the confessions of suspected SIMI activist Mohammed Jaber who was arrested by city police earlier this month, officials of the Central Crime Station (CCS) said. Police claimed Jaber, who also figures in the case, told investigation officers that Nagori, during a visit to Hyderabad in May 2007, had inquired about a location on the city outskirts to set up a terrorist training camp on the lines of a terror camp unearthed at Kalaghatgi forest area in Dharwad district of Karnataka early this year. Jaber, currently in police custody, told the officials Nagori and two other top SIMI functionaries stayed at his residence here and planned a terror training camp in forest area of Anantagiri Hills in neighbouring Ranga Reddy district. The proposed camp was aimed at recruiting youths from neighbouring states to train in jihadi and sabotage activities, a CCS official said. Nagori, who is in custody of Gujarat Police, was arrested from Indore in March this year. The other accused in the case include Abu Basher, alleged mastermind of Ahmedabad blasts, another top SIMI functionary Qamaruddin Nagori, Muqeemuddin Yasir and Raziuddin Nasir - sons of Moulana Naseeruddin, a city resident accused in the assassination of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya, and Motasim Billah, he said.

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India-Pakistan

Bombers among four held for India attack

2008-09-22

NEW DELHI: Indian police arrested four Muslims, including three accused of planting bombs that killed 23 people this month in the capital, New Delhi, officials said on Sunday. The four were picked up during overnight raids in the city. The arrests come two days after police shot dead two men, one of whom they said organised the New Delhi bombings and also deadly attacks in the western cities of Jaipur and Ahmedabad. "We have arrested four people - three are bombers and one is a caretaker of the building where they were hiding," said Rajan Bhagat, spokesman of Delhi Police. The Indian Mujahideen group has said it carried out the September 13 bombings. It has claimed other attacks in recent months as well. Police have identified Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also known as Tauqeer, a convent-educated computer expert and member of a banned students' group, as the chief suspect in the New Delhi attack, and said he was also involved in bombing the western city of Ahmedabad in July. They are also looking for a man they named as Qayamuddin, also known as Ashfaque. With the latest arrests, the total number of people held by police over the New Delhi attacks has gone up to six.

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