Islamist Terrorism

At least 270 people died in Islamist terrorist violence inlocations outside J&K and the Northeast during 2006. The significantincidents included:

March 7: At least 21 civilians were killed and 62others injured in three serial bomb explosions at a temple and railway stationin Varanasi. Seven bombs were later defused, including four that had beenplanted on the Gowdolia-Dasashwamedh Ghat Road near the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.Hours after the blasts, a suspected LeT terrorist was shot dead during anencounter with the police in the Gosaiganj area on the outskirts of Lucknowcity.

April 14: Two bombs exploded inside the Jama Masjid atDelhi injuring approximately 14 persons, including a woman and a girl.

June 1: Three suspected LeT terrorists were shot deadduring an abortive attempt to storm the headquarters of the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu organization, at Nagpur in Maharashtra.

July 11: At least 200 persons were killed and over 700others injured in seven bomb blasts targeting the railway network in the city ofMumbai. First class compartments of local trains at Mira-Bayandhar, Jogeshwari,Mahim, Santacruz, Khar, Matunga and Borivli stations on the Western Railway weretargeted.

September 8: Forty people killed and 65 sustaininjuries in three bomb explosions at Malegaon town in the Nashik District ofMaharashtra.

According to the MHA’s Status Paper, the current strategyof Pakistan-based terrorist groups is to:

• Maintain a continuous flow of finances to sustain the terrorist networks in India
• Target vital installations and economic infrastructure in India
• Recruit and train local modules
• Attack soft targets like market places, public transport system, places of worship and congregation, etc.
• Provoke communal tensions to create a wedge between communities
• Supply hardware through land and sea routes

The Status Paper discloses that the LeT and JeM also useterritory and elements in Bangladesh and Nepal for movement of terrorists andfinances. Army chief J. J. Singh, on December 27, 2006, stated that "Asterrorists are finding it hard to penetrate the fence and new anti-infiltrationsystems placed all along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and inPunjab… The areas bordering Nepal and Bangladesh are still porous andintelligence reports suggest that terrorists are trying to use them toinfiltrate into India."

According to data compiled by the Institute for ConflictManagement, at least 81 Inter-Services Intelligence-Jihadi moduleshave been disrupted just over the years 2004-2006, leading to hundreds ofarrests across India – outside Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast – inlocations that extend from Uttaranchal in the North, to Andhra Pradesh in theSouth, and from Gujarat in the West to West Bengal in the East. These moduleshad been tasked to target security and vital installations, communication links,and commercial and industrial centres, as well as to provoke instability anddisorder by circulating large quantities of counterfeit currency and by drugtrafficking. The National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had stated, on July28, 2006, that Indian security and nuclear installations are under "veryserious threat" from the LeT, which may be planning a "majorassault".

Worse, terrorist attacks by Pakistan-backed groups haveoccurred in places as far as Delhi, Mumbai, Malegaon, and Varanasi in 2006.Terrorist attacks in places like Mumbai and Varanasi in 2006 and earlier atBangalore (December 28, 2005) and New Delhi (October 29, 2005) are only the morevisible evidence of a long-term war of attrition by Pakistani state agencies andtheir jihadi surrogates, intended to undermine India’s politicalstability, by increasingly attacking its economic, scientific and technologicalstrengths. The frequency, spread and, in some cases, intensity of theseoperations in other parts of the country has seen some escalation in the pastyears, as international pressure on Pakistan to end terrorism in J&K hasdiminished levels of ‘deniable’ engagement in that theatre, and as violencein J&K demonstrates a continuous secular decline since the events ofSeptember 11, 2001 in the US.

It is important to note, however, that despite occasional andinevitable terrorist ‘successes’, this relentless strategy – which hastargeted virtually every concentration of Muslim populations in India fordecades – has overwhelmingly failed to secure a base within the community,beyond a minuscule radical fringe. Further, the record of intelligence andsecurity agency successes against such subversion and terror, although lackingthe visibility and drama of a terrorist strike, is immensely greater than therecord of the successes of this strategy.