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In an emailed message late Wednesday evening, a group called the Indian Mujahideen sent proof of its involvement in the bombings. Its distinctly local tag added a new twist to the Indian investigations, which has focused on searching for “foreign terrorists” behind the eight blasts that went off within 12 minutes, killing 80 people and injuring many more.
The manner in which this outfit carried out one of the country’s smoothest terrorist operations reveals that, despite tall claims by the Indian government after almost every terror attack over the last few years, the country has been able to do little to suppress terrorists.
According to intelligence reports that have surfaced over the past two days at least 40 terrorist training camps are still active within India and in its borders with neighboring countries. Claiming to have collated information from radio intercepts and interrogations of apprehended terrorists, the reports add that as many as 20 terrorist training camps operate in the most sensitive areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, 18 are in Pakistan while at least two are operating somewhere in the north of the country.
Moreover estimates suggest there are already around 1,200 active militants in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and with the onset of summer, which melts the natural snow barrier, many more sneak in every day.
“Terrorism in India has taken the form of an iceberg,” said B. Raman, a former intelligence officer and now a noted security expert, “and the Jaipur incident is yet another proof that the country so far has been able to unearth only the tip of this iceberg.”
Since 2004 India has lost more than 3,725 lives to terror attacks.
“The attack also signifies the complete failure of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s policy of relying on the Pakistan army instead of adopting counter measures to dampen terrorism from India,” said M.D. Nalapat, director of the School of Geopolitics at Manipal University in India and a commentator on security issues and international affairs.
There is also the fear that India is increasingly failing in its intelligence efforts as well. “Gathering intelligence doesn’t just mean the ability to, say, intercept messages, but more critically having a presence within local communities, and a consequent flow of information,” explained an editorial in the Economic Times. “Clearly, there is a disconnect between these communities and the state apparatus, and to that end this also represents a political failure of the Indian state.”
But political failure or not, a disturbing trend in the latest attacks is that terrorists have changed their modus operandi by targeting places that are not usually under special watch or protection, and yet are busy and often congested areas. Tuesday’s attack on the most congested areas of Jaipur is an ideal example of this shift. The city is an important tourist destination that has been off the terrorists’ map so far.
“In a small town like Jaipur it is easy to leave a bag or something similar unnoticed, because everybody does that,” said Raman. He said Jaipur was not just another easy target for the terrorists, however, it was a strategic choice.
“I believe that by hitting Jaipur they wanted to showcase the extent of their reach and ability,” said Raman, “as well as the fact that they can strike in any part of India anytime.”
The other reason, says Raman, is that terrorists want the Indian enforcement authorities and security agencies to overreact, because invariably this includes harsh interrogation of suspects and communities, which creates a feeling of animosity toward the police and the government. “And this is actually beneficial for the terrorists because it adds to their staff strength through the flow of new recruits,” said Raman.
Whatever the terrorists’ intentions, however, it is evident that for the Indian Mujahideen the attack was also tactical. Threatening an “open war against India” for supporting the policies of the United States and condemning the practice of worshipping deities by the Hindus of Jaipur, the majority community, the Mujahideen said that the attack on Jaipur was deliberately meant to cripple the state’s tourism industry and its economy.
And indeed they have chosen their target well. Ever since the attacks on Tuesday, the tourist operators in Jaipur are struggling to keep up with the surge of cancellations. Known as the “Pink City” for its quaint pink stucco architecture, Jaipur is one of the most famous tourist destinations in India. It receives more than 1.2 million foreign and 24 million domestic tourists each year.
Jaipur is also a trading hub for ethnic garments and textiles, colored gemstones, jewelry and artifacts. These industries employ over 300,000 artisans and fetch the city more than half a billion dollars in revenues annually.
Consequently, the city’s economy and its tourism sector are already in a shambles, according to local press reports.
Nevertheless, although a local terrorist group is the only one so far to have claimed a role in the attack, it was almost certainly aided by at least one international terrorist group, the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehad Al-Islami, known as HuJI. “This attack has all the footprints -- the method, kind of material used, and the structure of the explosives- of HuJI,” said Bhaskar Roy, a former Indian government official and now a security analyst.
“Moreover, the friendly stance that the present civilian government in Pakistan has taken toward India is certainly not in the interest of these (Huji and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba) militant groups. They want to stop the relationship between the two countries,” he added.
