Targeted attack on Muslim civilians outside J&K in other parts of India have been a more recent phenomenon during the last one year -- this is the fourth such since Delhi (April 2006), Malegaon (September 2006), and the blasts in Samjhauta Express train to Pakistan near Delhi in February 2007
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Hyderabad
A bomb blast at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad leaves 12 dead and 35 (including three children) injured, causing violence in the communally violent city, leaving the state on high alert. Updates
Madhavi Tata
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Statements
Shivraj Patil, YSR, Jana Reddy and others on the blast
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Five innocent civilians are reported to have been killed and many others
injured in an explosion in the historic Mecca Mosque of Hyderabad in Andhra
Pradesh at the time of the Friday prayers on May 18,2007. Two other explosive
devices are reported to have been neutralised by the police after the incident
before they could explode. One has to await the result of the forensic tests,
which will determine the nature of the explosive material, detonator and timer
or remote-control used. The recovered explosive devices should facilitate the
forensic examination. The preliminary indications from the description of the
explosions are that the devices were probably not of a sophisticated nature.
It would be premature to say anything definitively regarding the likely identity
of the perpetrators, their organisational affiliation, if any, and their motive.
While there have been many terrorist strikes against innocent Muslim civilians
and Muslim political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) since jihadi
terrorism broke out in the state in 1989, targeted attacks on Muslim civilians
outside J&K in other parts of India have been a more recent phenomenon
during the last one year. There have been at least four such strikes -- in the
principal mosque of Delhi in April 2006; in Malegaon in Maharashtra in September
2006; in the Samjhauta Express train to Pakistan near Delhi in February
2007 and in Hyderabad now.
There were grounds for suspicion that the blast in the Delhi mosque was probably
due to an internal rivalry among some office-bearers of the mosque. As such, it
was not considered an act of terrorism. The explosions in Malegaon and in the
Samjhauta Express were of a terrorist nature. The involvement of elements from
the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was suspected in the Malegaon
blasts. The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) was the principal suspect in
respect of the blasts in the Samjhauta Express. The investigation into it has
not made satisfactory progress due to non-co-operation from Pakistan.
Targeted killing of Muslims by jihadi terrorist organisations of pan-Islamic and
Wahabi orientation is not a new phenomenon. One has seen many instances of such
killings in Pakistan itself, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Somalia, Algeria,
J&K in India, Bangladesh, and in southern Thailand. In the past, such
attacks were directed at Muslims belonging to different sects (Shias vs Sunnis
as in Pakistan and Iraq), Muslims, who were perceived as apostate because of
their co-operation with the US and with pro-US Islamic regimes, Muslims who were
suspected to be spies of the intelligence agencies and moderate Muslim political
leaders, who opposed the ideology of the jihadi terrorists.
In the last one year, one has been seeing a new trend in the countries affected
by jihadi terrorism. Jihadi terrorist organisations have been targeting Muslims,
who are not prepared to accept Wahabism and the pan-Islamic objective of an
Islamic Caliphate. Of all the countries in Asia having a large Muslim
population, the maximum resistance to Wahabism and the pan-Islamic objectives
has been from the Muslim community in India, which is the second largest in the
world after Indonesia. While small numbers of Indian Muslims in India as well as
in the Gulf have been supporting the SIMI and organisations such as the
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and propagating
their ideology, the preponderant majority of the Indian Muslims has thus far
kept away from Wahabism and the pan-Islamic objectives. There seems to be a
concerted attempt to intimidate them into supporting these pernicious
ideologies. The Indian Muslims should refuse to be intimidated by such elements
and the Government should give them all the protection they need to enable them
to resist these jihadi elements.
B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India,
New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail:itschen36@gmail.com)