Jihadi terror and the farce of war on terror in Hindusthan

Jihadi terror and the farce of war on terror in Hindusthan

We get sporadic reports of the type listed below and then life goes back to poverty as usual. Smas’aana vairaagyam. There is no concerted and sincere effort to realize that this is a war on jihadism and this has to be fought relentlessly as a war on jihadism and fought to win.

Empress’ chamchas provide periodic sound bytes and go back to their corruption chores. Empress is secure in 10 Janpath and this seems to be the be-all and end-all of ensuring national security, ensuring security for the helpless child in a marketplace who is targeted by the jihadi terrorists. Columnists and security analysts keep guessing what the message of jihadi terrorists is. It is simple, straightforward: it is ok to kill non-believers to achieve jihad. Read the texts which the jihadis believe in to realize this truth.

Kalyanaraman

Two suspected terrorists held in Chennai
28 Jul 2008, 1311 hrs IST,IANS

CHENNAI: The Chennai police on Monday arrested two suspected terrorists believed to be involved in serial bombings in Bangalore and Ahmedabad during the weekend.

The suspects, Qazi Rahim, 31, and K Abdul Kader, 27, were named by Sheikh Abdul Ghaffoor, who was arrested on Sunday in Tirunelveli, 600 km from Chennai.

Ghafoor was planning blasts in Tamil Nadu and other parts of India on Independence Day, police officials said.

According to the officials, on initial interrogation Ghafoor revealed that he was an operative of a terrorist ring that calls itself "believers in one god", whose kingpin is said to be Pakistan-trained P Ali Abdullah, arrested in 2003 and lodged in high security Puzhal prison, 20 km from here.

Police officials reckon this ring had worked out logistics of the serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The back-to-back synchronised bomb blasts hit the cities Friday and Saturday. The attacks claimed the lives of 46 people and left over 150 injured.

While Rahim is from Tirunelveli, Kader is from Chennai. The two were being taken to Tirunelveli for further questioning, the officials added.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/2_suspected_terrorists_held_in_TN/articleshow/3295751.cms

7 kg of explosives recovered in Channapatna
Karnataka Bureau (The Hindu, July 28, 2008)
Several persons detained for questioning in connection with blasts in Bangalore

Samples collected at blast sites sent for tests
Bangalore police alert their Kerala counterparts
BANGALORE: Even as the Bangalore police have detained several persons for questioning in connection with the explosions that rocked the city on Friday, the Channapatna police have recovered 7 kg. of explosive material from a blast site.
Though the explosion took place at Channapatna in Ramanagaram district on Thursday, no alert was sounded in Ramanagaram district or other parts of the State.
Director general and Inspector general of Police R. Sri Kumar, who visited the blast sites in the city on Sunday, said that the police were examining the explosive material recovered in Channapatna.
“Many persons are being questioned and we are in the process of gathering information from them. The investigations are progressing satisfactorily,” Police Commissioner Shankar M. Bidari told presspersons here on Sunday. Mr. Bidari said samples collected at the blast sites had been sent to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory.
The police have found that the explosives used in Bangalore and Channapatna were similar.
The Bangalore police have alerted their Kerala counterparts after a reporter of a local TV channel received a call from a person speaking Hindi who warned that Kerala was the next target and bombs were likely to explode across the State after 7 p.m. on Sunday.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/28/stories/2008072855460100.htm


Sleeper cells make all the difference to terror strikes

Vicky Nanjappa in Bengaluru | July 28, 2008 | 07:00 IST

Friday's serial blasts in Bengaluru and a day later in Ahmedabad are an indication that terror outfits are able to strike at will. And providing this capability, is a network of sleeper cells, say agencies involved with the probe.
The Intelligence Bureau says all terror strikes are executed through sleeper cells, with the latter either directly involved in the attacks or, two, by providing logistical support to those who carry out the attacks.
The IB provides the example of Afsar Pasha, a terror suspect arrested in Karnataka who disclosed a plan to blast the Vidhan Soudha and other key installations in Karnataka, to explain how the network operates.
Pasha was the member of a sleeper cell in Karwar, coastal Karnataka, and worked as a mechanic. The IB says most sleeper cell operatives hold a regular job for most part of the year. Arrests across the country show that most of the youth who are part of sleeper cells work as mechanics, STD booth operators and, in some cases, insurance agents.
The IB points out that these jobs involve meeting a lot of people which in turn helps them gather data. Of late, there is also an increasing trend to recruit educated youth. However, their role is largely restricted to data collection and improvising techniques during terror strikes, says IB.
Mechanic Afsar Pasha revealed during his interrogation that his initial job was largely confined to gathering data and providing logistical support. However, as he gained more experience, he was directed to take part in field activities, meaning he had to actively take part in terror strikes.
The IB says based on the interrogation of several terrorists they have gathered considerable information regarding the working of sleeper cells. For the most part they remain inactive, apart from collecting data, training cadres and doing recruitments. The data is passed on to their supervisors through e-mail and/or on the telephone.
Once the decision is taken to strike, a couple of members from the sleeper cells are chosen to carry out the attack. The persons undertaking the attack are known as foot soldiers, the IB says.
A set pattern is that members of local sleeper cells are usually not the ones who carry out an attack in their jurisdiction. A person from another sleeper cell is sent in for this, with the local member only providing logistical support.
The IB also says members of sleeper cells work as a close-knit group. Normally, in a serial terror strike, nearly 10 people are involved. While a team of five would plant the bombs, two work as a back-up and the rest would provide data.
The IB says there is a general belief that the sleeper cells are housed away from the main city or town area, and in busy market areas so that the members can blend in with the crowds. An IB document states, 'It is not necessary for visiting terrorists to make a beeline to the... (local rendezvous points). The handlers from their intelligence agencies provide them with a blueprint of hubs or cells.'
The IB further states that the sleeper cells which are patronised by Pakistan are mainly involved in collection of geographical and geo-strategic information. Until a few years back these cells only undertook intelligence-related work, but with the Indianisation of jihad gaining ground, sleeper cells have been directed to carry out the attacks.
The IB says the functioning of sleeper cells could be summed up as:
 Evaluation of intelligence input
 Selection of target
 Selection of volunteers
 Preparation of bomb squads, usually three of them
 Identification of targets in India
 In case outsiders are doing the strike, their transportation
 Providing safe houses
 Putting together the explosives
 Identifying talent within the cell to plant the device
 Dispersal and evacuation
http://www.rediff.com///news/2008/jul/28vicky.htm

'Terrorists have sent a message that the claim of security is hollow'

Sheela Bhatt in Ahmedabad | July 28, 2008 | 11:23 IST

"We expected it earlier when other cities like Hyderabad and Jaipur were hit by terrorists," says poet Chinu Modi about the Ahmedabad blasts.
The surprise element was missing when Ahmedabad was rocked by 17 bomb explosions because at the back of people's mind many knew that the Gujarat riots of 2002 may lead to such a violent reaction.
Yet, the blasts of July 26 carry something more than the element of surprise. The act is shocking and incomprehensible because of the mastery of the strategic planning, the perfection of the execution and the bloody impact in terms of the political message it has left behind.
Since the blasts, Ahmedabadis are debating three issues:
1. Experts and common people are stumped to see the selection of the locations for planting the bombs.
2. The blasts were executed when a 'red alert' was declared in Ahmedabad after the blasts in Bangalore.
3. The extent of the involvement of local people and the secrecy maintained by the perpetrators of the act has shocked the residents of the city, which is still known as an 'overgrown village.'
"The blasts are part of the pan-Indian phenomenon and it is also aimed at the Bharatiya Janata Party government," believes Ghanshyam Shah, a former professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and an authority on communal riots in Gujarat.
He argues that these blasts may not be exclusively connected to the riots of 2002 when more than 1,000 Muslims died in widespread communal riots after the Sabarmati Express was set on fire burning 59 Hindu passengers at the Godhra railway station.
Professor Shah says there was a surprise when after the violence of the majority, the minority community did not show their anger "in natural process."
He attributes it to the fact that the Muslims of Gujarat are diffident. "I see more and more diffidence in them. Muslims in Gujarat have realised that there is no solution of the issue (communal politics)."
However, he is not denying the involvement of Gujarati Muslims in the serial blasts. "The large terrorist group must have taken the support of local people. But I don't see the widespread support of Gujarati Muslims to such violence at all," he says.
To further support his argument that Gujarati Muslims by and large do not support the blasts to avenge the riots of 2002, he says, "In 1992, Surat witnessed communal riots (some Muslims were then burnt alive). Soon after, the plague spread in the city. At that time, Surti Muslims in the city were heard saying, 'Khuda e sajha kari' (God has punished them). But after the 2002 riots, I see an unusually high level of diffidence in them and we don't hear such remarks."
Professor Shah argues that when the Muslim community lives in isolation and in ghettos, it is easier for outsiders to get a handful of people to support their activity.
One of the surprises of Saturday's blasts was that except one blast in Sarkhej, all the blasts were executed in East Ahmedabad, which includes the highly communally sensitive walled city area. The accuracy of the planning suggests that a person with a complete grip on the social-political mindset of the city and its communal geography must be behind the blasts.
No one in this shaken city doubts that these blasts were planned by someone who has a thorough knowledge of the past 25 years history of communally sensitive areas and the Sangh Parivar's role in it.
The terrorists have targeted the constituencies of four veteran leaders belonging to the saffron brigade. Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Ashok Bhatt, one of the oldest faces of the communal friction in the city, and Dr Pravin Togadia, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader.
Four blasts occurred in Modi's constituency -- Maninagar. Sarkhej is in Shah's constituency while the Dhanvantri hospital in Bapunagar has been run by Dr Togadia for many decades. The blast in Raipur was right at the spot where Bhatt has held daily meetings with his supporters for the last 40 years.
"The planners knew where the victims would go for emergency treatment and they hit those hospitals. L G hospital was targeted because victims from the Maninagar blasts would obviously go there because it is close by. They knew the social geography very well," says Achyut Yagnik, the Ahmedabad-based socio-political thinker.
Yagnik is writing a book on Ahmedabad -- which will complete 600 years in 2011 -- along with fellow writer Suchitra Sheth. He points out that blasts were carried out in BJP-dominated areas of the working class and not in posh or middle class areas.
Secondly, the bombs were planted in places where Dalit and Muslims live side by side. Those well-versed with the communal history of Ahmedabad know how the Dalits and Muslims have been at loggerheads in these areas.
Bapunagar, Raipur, Sarangpur are areas that have seen communal tension in 1985, 1990-1992 and also during the 2002 riots.
"There is no doubt that Hindu-Muslim neighbourhoods have been targeted in these serial blasts," says Yagnik.
In Ahmedabad, the political movement to capture Hindu and Muslim minds is carried on by political parties inside these areas where Dalits and Muslims co-exist side by side. It is not difficult to decipher why these areas and hospitals have been hit by the terrorists.
"The terrorists have served twin goals. By hitting BJP-dominated areas, they have sent the message to the chief minister that his claim of security is hollow. In spite of a red alert in the city, they have shown their capacity to strike at places they want. Second, by hitting hospitals in a cruel and dastardly manner they have caused the maximum damage."
http://www.rediff.com///news/2008/jul/28ahd4.htm

Terror's scary face

The Pioneer Edit Desk

India pays for Congress's folly

Saturday's serial bombings in Ahmedabad, within 24 hours of the terrorist attack on Bangalore, serve to highlight the fact that our internal security situation is rapidly deteriorating even as the Union Government, under the Congress's tutelage and headed by a Prime Minister seemingly indifferent to national concerns, refuses to be distracted from the India-US nuclear deal which has become the symptom of the regime's obsessive compulsive disorder. It is obvious that the bombings -- both in Ahmedabad and Bangalore, and before that in Jaipur -- are aimed at creating panic and spreading fear; those behind the blasts have demonstrated that they can strike anywhere at any time. It is equally obvious that those who planned and carried out these acts of terrorism expect a blowback in the form of communal violence. A third factor which merits mention is that BJP-ruled States are being targeted for murder and mayhem; this perception naturally leads to the conclusion that a larger game is being played whose purpose does not require elaboration. Was the effort to instigate communal riots in Indore during the protest against the Sri Amarnath land issue a part of this conspiracy? In retrospect, it would seem so. Seen against this backdrop, the BJP Governments must rise to the occasion and meet the challenge with unwavering determination: Agent provocateurs will no doubt seek to exploit the situation; they must be spotted, exposed and firmly dealt with. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has rightly described the perpetrators of Saturday's outrage as "enemies of humanity". They must be neutralised and their network of evil should be destroyed.

Strangely, the Union Government has shown little or no interest in last weekend's terrorist strikes, apart from issuing proforma statements condeming the violence and appealing for peace. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who has contributed the most to dismantling the anti-terrorism mechanism put together by the NDA Government, partly on account of the fact that he is unequal to his job and largely to implement the Congress's perverse agenda of appeasing Muslims by pandering to Islamic fanatics who define terrorism as jihad and are at ease with innocent people being slaughtered, has tried to pass the buck to the Governments of Karnataka and Gujarat. According to him, the terrible loss of lives and the resultant disquiet bear testimony to the 'abilities' of local authorities and the police; had he said anything different, there would have been occasion for surprise. The truth is that the chickens of the UPA Government's chicanery are coming home to roost. The Prime Minister and his aides -- among them Mr Patil and a National Security Adviser who, along with intelligence agencies, is busy helping the Congress achieve its political objectives -- have allowed the situation to come to such a sorry pass. They must be held accountable for the consequences; their pious declarations should not distract us from their monumental folly in allowing terrorists to spread their tentacles across the country. Having got rid of POTA and instituted a system that takes a libertine view of terrorism, the UPA Government is now bent upon hobbling the Governments of BJP-ruled States with the intent of preventing them from waging war on terror. Had this not been the case, the UPA Government would not have sat on the laws enacted by the State Assemblies of Rajasthan and Gujarat to combat terrorism and organised crime. Such cynical abuse of power is both a shame and a pity.
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=EDITS&file_name=edit1.txt&counter_img=1
Time to question
The Indian Express
Posted online: Monday, July 28, 2008 at 0048 hrs IST

Terror is pathology. But so it seems, in India, is the government’s response to terror. The one score and some serial bombs in Bangalore and Ahmedabad were met with cringe-inducing official harrumphs from Delhi that warnings had been given. It is time to ask what the Union government means when it says warnings were available. Is it the case that the Centre’s, or specifically the home ministry’s, radars are always buzzing efficiently with actionable information that is not acted upon by inefficient state governments? If so, why doesn’t the Centre say it straight? They have a duty to the nation to say it. And if that is not the case, as one strongly suspects is not the case, why take this, to put it bluntly, awful way to pass the parcel? It has to be said, in the context of this trait, that the UPA’s whole approach to terror has been scarily confusing.
The present home minister will demit office as having made a spectacular non-impression as far as his leadership of national security efforts go. It took the prime minister, that too after more than half of the UPA’s term in office was over, to say Naxalites were a high-priority threat to the idea of India. Can you recall the home minister taking political leadership of this national security issue? Can you recall him owning up to his remit as home minister vis-a-vis terror? And let’s remember that while strong and clear political positions are no guarantees against stopping terror, their absence severely weakens the government’s fight against it.
More than four years after the UPA took over, not a single terror attack has been brought to closure in terms of catching the perpetrators and putting them through the mills of justice. There’s investigative failure of a scale that would have in normal circumstances consumed the career of several ministers — but in the UPA the home ministry seems to have acquired immunity from even the most obvious of questions. It’s long been known that security agencies are in part handicapped by a certain absurd notion of political correctness — a notion that implicates the very people it professes to protect. The convenient political assumption in India is that voters don’t punish governments who appear to be ineffective against terror. This government really has pushed that assumption to its limit.
http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/341208.html