Who Did It?

As always, the identity and nature of the attack has left security agencies baffled.

It used to be Indian Mujahideen, but then various police arrests andencounters had claimed that they had eliminated their mastermind.

This time around, emails were apparently sent out by a little-known groupthat called itself Deccan Mujahideen and claimed responsibility for the coordinated terror strikes in Mumbai.

But while some of the terrorists have allegedly been killed -- two at Tajhotel, two at Chaupati -- and nine arrested, in the security camera shots of a suspected terrorist involved in the gruesome shootout,one of the AK-47 wielding youth comes across as an average youngster.

Dressed in a black half T-shirt and jeans with a blue rucksack hung over his left shoulder anda red sacred thread tied on his right wrist, one might just mistake him to to be just another regular college going student.

The security agencies were quick to focus on the red sacred thread tied on his wrist which, many say, could be aploy to show that the attack was undertaken by an extreme Hindu group.

Which is why the contradiction in the form of emails from 'Deccan Mujahideen'were initially found to be perplexing.

No official statement has been made about the identities of the terrorists,but Chief Minister Deshmukh said the terrorists apparently arrived by sea with their explosives.Their boat was later found by customs officers. Eyewitnesses said some of them spoke Arabic, and included Nigerian or Somali mercenaries. 

But given the recent arrests and revelations related to Malegaon terror attacks, this time those in authority knew better than to start speculating on the religious or other identity of the terrorists.