The expert orchestration of the terrorist strikes in Jammu & Kashmir andMumbai and the targeting of tourists in J&K and the railway system in Mumbairesulting in the death of close to 150 innocent civilians carry the signature of AlQaeda, which has been carrying on an anti-India and anti-Hindu campaign sincethe visit of President Bush to India in March,2006.
Since the visit, Al Qaeda has been talking of a Crusader-Jewish- Hinduconspiracy against Islam. Osama bin Laden has focussed on this theme in hismessage of April 23, 2006. In this connection, please refer to my earlier piece,AndNow Osama Targets India.
While there is no reason to believe that the terrorist strikes of July 11might have been carried out by the Arab members of Al Qaeda, the inspiration andplanning are likely to have come from Al Qaeda. The execution could have beenthrough Al Qaeda's surrogates in the Lashkar-e-Toiba or other Pakistani membersof the Al Qaeda-led International Islamic Front (IIF) or the Students IslamicMovement of India (SIMI) or the followers of Dawood Ibrahim. The Pakistani mediahad reported last month that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) hadre-located Dawood in the tribal areas near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.Osama bin Laden and his No.2 Ayman al-Zawahiri operate from the same area.
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Since 9/11, Al Qaeda has been targeting the tourist economies (Bali, Mombasa,Casablanca and Istanbul) and the means of transport (Madrid and London).
Al Qaeda's inspiration behind today's terrorist strikes is a strongpossibility.
B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd),Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai
