Mumbai bombings: a new terrorist theater?

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See the Sol Sanders Archive By Sol Sanders SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

India could be turning into a new major theater for international terrorism.

Prime Minister Vajpayee has long complained to Washington that the almost constant terrorist activity in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan state between India and Pakistan, is the function of infiltration directed from Pakistan. But with renewed efforts by Vajpayee for negotiations with PakistanÕs President.-Gen. Musharraf and local elections which produced the first Kashmiri government not a creature of IndiaÕs central government, Indian propaganda has moderated. The Indians still maintain ø and Washington concurs ø that infiltration continues from training camps in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. But when an Indian general was recently killed and two brigadiers wounded by a suicide bomber, New DelhiÕs accusations were muted, apparently recognition that some of KashmirÕs almost daily clashes come from international Islamicist networks beyond IslamabadÕs control.

The first media reports of the spectacular terrorist Mumbai [Bombay] civilian bombings which took 50 lives and injured dozens, indicate a newer, higher level of sophistication. The effort was precisely targeted, and first reports indicate more sophisticated explosives. The bombings followed similar if less professional explosions since 2002, and an earlier round going back to 1993.

Terrorists in this latest episode attacked two targets ø a center of the Gujarati business and cultural community, and the Gateway to India monument close to the luxurious Taj Mahal Hotel [a home-away-from-home for many of the Persian GulfÕs wealthy sheikhs]. They apparently aimed at international tourism and business in IndiaÕs most cosmopolitan city. The Gujaratis, perhaps the largest ethnic group in the cityÕs estimated 14-15 million people, have close ties to neighboring Gujarat. Terrorist suspects captured earlier said they were avenging Moslems in what many argue was that state governmentÕs collusion in rioting there last spring, an outgrowth of a Moslem terrorist attack on Hindu pilgrims returning from the contested holy site in north India. The bombing also appeared timed for a visit locally of the Gujarat chief minister implicated in the pogrom, and announcement of results of an archaeological inquest into the a destroyed mosque, believed by devout Hindus built over a temple dedicated to the birthplace of one of the religionÕs principle godheads.

Government spokesmen in past terrorist episodes have generally played down participation of IndiaÕs Moslem community, more than 150 million, a population larger than PakistanÕs. Conventional wisdom held that Indian Moslems, despite their strong historical [family ties among the upper classes] to Pakistan, had been denuded of radical Islamicist sentiments with the emigration of large numbers of British Indian Moslems on the creation of Pakistan. The Moslem population Òleft behindÓ, it was argued, does not accept Òthe two nationsÓ hypothesis expounded by PakistanÕs founders ø and are poorer and lower caste Moslems with no politics. Both Prime Minister NehruÕs, his daughterÕs, and her sonÕs Congress Party governments at the Center during its long domination of government courted the Moslem vote. Moslem family law, for example, has been elaborated instead of elided into a universal code promised by IndiaÕs constitution. But the coalition government headed by VajpayeeÕs BJP, a Hindu revivalist political party whose roots and base are in more radical religious groups, have used vague Hinduistic slogans to mobilize voters.

A wave of bombings in 1993 during IndiaÕs worst communal rioting since Partition were said by police to have been on the Moslem side the work largely of village and slum Islamicist activist amateurs fired up by religious zeal. But upperclass Moslems suffered targeted attacks by BombayÕs own local Hindu political opposition, more strident than the BJP.

Sujata Anandan, writing in the Indian Express, says the police are going to have a much more difficult time rooting out the terrorists: ÒÉthe present terrorist leadership has been recruited from the Students Islamic Movement of India [SIMI].: One measure of how difficult the task is that these terrorists are all highly educated -- among them doctors, engineers, chartered accounts and systems analysts with enviable job and career profiles. They speak English better than their lawyers at times and are far more articulate than the prosecution when produced before the courts.Ó

That smells very much like the kind of recruitment which has made the Al Qaida and its allies in Europe and Southeast Asia, as well as the Middle East, so effective. So far Indian officials and police have not tied these disturbances to any group beyond Pakistan-based groups operating in Kashmir. But it seems highly likely Osmana Ben Ladin would have made inroads into any organized Indian Moslem groups, given his proved extensive ties to Pakistani radicals and terrorists in Southeast Asia. Despite New DelhiÕs elaborate efforts to maintain friendship with Arab countries [not the least, Sadaam Hussein who endorsed IndiaÕs position on Kashmir], IndiaÕs consideration, if not agreement, to send troops to Iraq, its armament deals with Israel, even its prominence in the UN bureaucracy, could all now be grotesque rationale for the terroristsÕ attacks on civilian targets.