[Goanet-News] Sophisticated Attacks, but by Whom? (ALAN COWELL and SOUAD MEKHENNET, NYT)

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/world/asia/28group.html?bl&ex=1228021200&en=276ae1b71db73654&ei=5087%0A

Sophisticated Attacks, but by Whom?

By ALAN COWELL and SOUAD MEKHENNET
Published: November 27, 2008

PARIS — A day after the terror attacks in Mumbai that killed over 100
people, one question remained as impenetrable as the smoke that still
billowed from two of the city's landmark hotels: who carried out the
attacks?

The Indian authorities say they captured some of the attackers, so
some answers may emerge soon. But for now, their identities remain a
mystery. Surviving witnesses recalled the gunmen as masked young men
in unremarkable T-shirts and jeans, some heavily armed, wearing
backpacks filled with weapons. The only claim of responsibility came
from a group that may not even exist.

The assaults represented a marked departure in scope and ambition from
other recent terrorist attacks in India, which have singled out local
people rather than foreigners and hit single rather than multiple
targets.

The Mumbai assault, by contrast, was seemed directed at foreigners,
involved hostage taking and was aimed at multiple and highly symbolic
targets.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India said the attacks probably had
"external linkages," reflecting calculations among Indian officials
that the level of planning, preparation and coordination could not
have been achieved without help from experienced terrorists. But some
security experts insisted the style of the attacks and the targets in
Mumbai suggested the militants were likely to be Indian Muslims, with
a domestic agenda.

The e-mail message taking responsibility that was sent to Indian media
outlets on Wednesday night said the attackers were from a group called
Deccan Mujahedeen. Deccan is a neighborhood of the Indian city of
Hyderabad. The word also describes the middle and south of India,
which is dominated by the Deccan Plateau. Mujahedeen is the commonly
used Arabic word for holy fighters.

But security experts drew a blank on any such organization. Sajjan
Gohel, a security expert in London, called it a "front name" and said
the group was "nonexistent."

An Indian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to be identified said the name suggested
ties to a group called Indian Mujahedeen, which has been implicated in
a string of bombing attacks in India killing about 200 people this
year alone.

On Sept. 15, an e-mail message published in Indian newspapers and said
to have been sent by representatives of Indian Mujahedeen threatened
potential "deadly attacks" in Mumbai. The message warned
counterterrorism officials in the city that "you are already on our
hit-list and this time very, very seriously."

Several high-ranking law enforcement officials, including the chief of
the antiterrorism squad and a commissioner of police, were, indeed,
reported killed in the attacks in Mumbai.

With relations long strained between India and Pakistan, particularly
over the disputed territory of Kashmir, suspicions turned toward Al
Qaeda or Pakistani militants. The Indian security official said the
attackers likely had ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a guerrilla group run by
Pakistani intelligence in the conflict with India in the disputed
territory of Kashmir. On Thursday, the group denied involved in the
Mumbai attacks. India also blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba for a suicide
assault on its Parliament by gunmen in December 2001 that led to a
perilous military standoff with Pakistan.

The Indian official also suggested the foot-soldiers in the attack
might have emerged from an outlawed militant group of Islamic
students. Photographs from security cameras showed some youthful
attackers carrying assault rifles and smiling as they began the
operation.

Christine Fair, senior political scientist and a South Asia expert at
the RAND Corporation, was careful to say that the identity of the
terrorists could not yet be known. But she pointed to India's domestic
problems, and long tensions between Hindus, who make up about 80
percent of India's population of 1.13 billion, and Muslims, who make
up 13.4 percent.

"There are a lot of very, very angry Muslims in India," Ms. Fair said.
"The economic disparities are startling and India has been very slow
to publicly embrace its rising Muslim problem. You cannot put lipstick
on this pig. This is a major domestic political challenge for India.

"The public political face of India says, 'Our Muslims have not been
radicalized,' she said. "But the Indian intelligence apparatus knows
that's not true. India's Muslim communities are being sucked into the
global landscape of Islamist jihad."

"Indians will have a strong incentive to link this to Al Qaeda," she
said. "But this is a domestic issue. This is not India's 9/11."
--
Alan Cowell reported from Paris, and Souad Mekhennet from Frankfurt.
Mark McDonald contributed reporting from Hong Kong, and Salman Masood
from Islamabad, Pakistan.