Home-grown terrorists responsible ?
The previously unknown group that claimed responsibility for
Wednesday's attacks across Mumbai has added to the growing belief that
India is confronting a home-grown Islamic militancy.
Attacks over the last year have been claimed by groups with names
stressing their local origins.
"Deccan Mujahideen," which said it was responsible for the Mumbai
assault, takes its title from the Deccan plateau that covers much of
south India.
The outfit sent emails to local media saying it carried out the
attacks.
A similarly shadowy group calling itself the "Indian Mujahedeen"
claimed responsibility for serial blasts in Delhi in September, which
killed 20 people, and bombings in Ahmedabad in July when 45 died.
Another group, the "Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahedeen," said
it was behind explosions last month in India's northeast state of Assam
that killed 80.
It is unclear whether the various groups are connected, but retired
senior security official B. Raman has said their chosen names were a
"bid to Indianise" the Islamic militant movement. The "Indian Mujahedeen,"
which also calls itself "the militia of Islam," first came to public
attention last November following serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh.
The same group sent another email to the media after blasts in May in
the city of Jaipur in which it said it would wage an "open war" against
India for supporting the United States, and warned of more attacks
against tourist sites.
Security services suspect the groups may be fronts for outfits that
have been banned by the Indian government over the past few years such
as the Students' Islamic Movement of India.
Others say they could be an undercover coalition of the
Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed militant
organisations.
Just minutes before the blasts in Ahmedabad, the main commercial city
of Gujarat state, the "Indian Mujahedeen" sent emails to several TV news
stations warning that people would "feel the terror of death".
It said the Ahmedabad blasts were revenge for riots which swept
Gujarat in 2002 in which at least 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were
hacked, shot and burnt to death.
It has warned India's largest-circulation daily, The Times of India,
and other media groups to halt their "propaganda war" against Muslims.
And it has told Mukesh Ambani, India's richest businessman, to "think
twice" about his construction of a glass-and-steel 27-storey home on
land in Mumbai where a Muslim orphanage once stood.
Times of India
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