STILL NO BREAKTHROUGH IN MUMBAI TRAIN BOMBING INVESTIGATION, POLICE SAY

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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MUMBAI 001506

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR OPS CENTER, S/CT, SCA/INS, DS, DS/IP/ITA, DS/IP/SCA,

DS/ICI/PII

E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/11/2016

TAGS: PREL, PTER, PGOV, KISL, CASC, ASEC, PK, IN

SUBJECT: STILL NO BREAKTHROUGH IN MUMBAI TRAIN BOMBING INVESTIGATION,

POLICE SAY

REF: A: MUMBAI 1360; B: MUMBAI 1332; C: MUMBAI 890; D: NEW DELHI 5063

CLASSIFIED BY: Joseph M. Pomper, Acting Principal Officer,

Consulate General Mumbai, State.

REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)

Summary

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1. (C) K. Raghuvanshi, the Chief of the Maharashtra

Anti-Terrorism Squad, told Congenoffs on August 11 that

investigators had made "no major headway" in their search for

the perpetrators of the July 11 Mumbai train bombings. The

operation was professionally planned and executed, and those

responsible left few traces and no clues. None of the persons

arrested since July 11 could be linked to either the planning or

the execution of the attacks, Raghuvanshi conceded. However,

all were conclusively tied to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) or the

Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI),the two

organizations that Indian investigators still believe were

behind the attacks, he said. The interrogation revealed details

about the LeT's efforts to recruit and train sleeper cells among

dissatisfied Indian Muslims. The young men received training in

Pakistan, had returned to India as "hardened jihadists," and

were sad proof that Islamic fundamentalism was here to stay in

India. It would be no surprise if Indian-born Muslim extremists

were soon implicated in terrorist attacks elsewhere in the

world, he said. Raghuvanshi claimed that the ATS had names and

locations of the LeT camps where the arrested received training,

and he admonished the USG to put pressure on Pakistan to crack

down on the facilities. However, he declined to share the

information on the Pakistan camps with us. End summary.

"No Major Headway"

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2. (C) K. Raghuvanshi, the Chief of the Maharashtra

Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS),told RSO and Pol/Econ Chief on

August 11 that investigators have made "no major headway" in

finding the perpetrators of the July 11 train bombings in Mumbai

/>
that killed over 180 people. Despite weeks of painstaking work

at the bomb sites, investigators have found no useful clues,

except that a mixture of ammonium nitrate and RDX was used in

each of the bombs that exploded nearly simultaneously in seven

different commuter trains at the height of the evening rush

hour. The police had no traces of the timing devices or the

containers used by the perpetrators to plant the bombs, each

weighing 3 to 4 kg, nor did they have any reliable explanation

why the first class cars of the trains had been targeted. The

terrorists may have wanted to hit better-off commuters, or the

first class cars, located at the front of the train, may have

provided an easier escape route for the persons who planted the

bombs, Raghuvanshi said. The police did not know how many

persons planted the bombs, or where they did so. Investigators

were also still trying to determine whether the one body still

unidentified in a hospital morgue was actually that of a

terrorist operative.

Arrested Persons Not Linked to Bombings

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3. (C) The persons arrested or otherwise detained by the police

(ref A) in the weeks after the bombings have not been linked to

either the planning or execution of the attacks, Raghuvanshi and

his deputy, Subodh Jaiswan, conceded. However, all were

conclusively tied to LeT or SIMI, the groups that investigators

still believe are responsible for the bombings. Several of the

suspects admitted that they received weapons and explosives

training in Pakistan in the past several years. The police had

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proof that some had received money via hawala transfers from

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. None of those interrogated appeared

to have instructions to carry out a concrete act in India,

Raghuvanshi said. Instead, several had admitted that they

returned to India as sleeper cells and were awaiting

instructions. Their knowledge of each other was limited and

compartmentalized, and was a sign that they were part of a

well-organized and professionally managed organization.

Background of Those Arrested

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4. (C) All of those detained were born in India and were Indian

citizens, Raghuvanshi said. All were Sunni Muslims of the

Deobandi sect, and were followers of the Ahl-e-Hadeeth movement,

Jaiswan said. Most were "semi-educated" and not as tech-savvy

as they had often been portrayed in media reports. For most,

their knowledge of computers was limited to the internet,

e-mailing and web-chatting. The persons arrested in Bihar had

the same profile, Raghuvanshi said. One also had a Nepalese

passport which he used to travel to Pakistan frequently.

Young Muslims Return to India "Hardened" and "Poisoned"

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5. (C) Raghuvanshi said the police were trying to understand the

mindset of the young men who had been detained. He said those

that had gone to Pakistan had received an intensive course of

ideological indoctrination and had come back "hardened" and

"poisoned." Several of the young men told interrogators that,

in the training camps in Pakistan, they had been taught that

India and the U.S. were united as enemies of Islam. They viewed

Indian policy in Kashmir and U.S. support for Israel as

identical signs that both of these countries had targeted

Muslims around the world. They were ideologically committed to

jihadi thinking and could be expected to support or carry out

the worst forms of terrorism, Raghuvanshi said. While all had a

negative view of the U.S. role in the world, none of those

detained had given any indication that they had instructions or

intentions to target U.S. facilities or Amcits in India,

Raghuvanshi said. Recent media reports that some of those

arrested had targeted U.S. companies in Bangalore were

inaccurate, he told us. Anything that the suspects had intended

in Bangalore was "a purely Indian matter," he said.

"Muslim Extremism Here to Stay"

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6. (C) Raghuvanshi said that the investigations were

demonstrating that jihadi extremism was here to stay in India.

The LeT and other foreign Islamic terrorist groups had

successfully used frustration and anger among India's Muslims to

penetrate the large and diverse Muslim community, he said.

(Note: Unlike P.S. Pasricha, Maharashtra Director General of

Police -- see ref B -- Raghuvanshi did not claim that the modus

operandi of the attacks pointed towards Al Qaida involvement.

End comment.) While Indian Muslims have never been linked to a

terrorist atrocity outside of India, Raghuvanshi said, a

different scenario was highly likely in the future. There were

now enough determined jihadi operatives among Indian Muslims, he

said. The U.S. and other Western countries should not be

surprised if, at some time in the near future, an Indian-born

and Indian-bred Muslim became involved in a terrorist attack

somewhere in the world.

No Definitive Links to Other Terror Incidents in India

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7. (C) Raghuvanshi said investigators had no clear evidence

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linking those arrested after July 11 to the sizable arms

seizures in Aurangabad in May (ref C). The police only knew that

those arrested post-July 11 or in Aurangabad were members of

sleeper cells organized by LeT. There was some personal

familiarity among those arrested in the two incidents, but no

clear useful operative linkage had been established. The police

were also unable to establish a clear link between the

Aurangabad seizures, the Mumbai train bombings and the foiled

attack on RSS headquarters in Nagpur (ref D). However, the

police now have evidence that the three suspected terrorists

killed in Nagpur were all Pakistanis.

Comment

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8. (C) Raghuvanshi and his deputy were visibly frustrated at the

lack of true progress in the investigation. They were also

quick to point fingers at Pakistan, arguing that forces there,

and not Al Qaida for example, were the main threat to Indian

security. Raghuvanshi also claimed that the ATS had information

on the LeT training camps in Pakistan, and admonished the USG

for not putting more pressure on the GOP to address the issue of

terrorism. At the same time, he declined to share any

information on the camps with us. His reaction was in line with

a previous lack of willingness to share operative details with

the USG.

9. (C) Comment continued: Raghuvashni's comment that Muslim

extremism was "here to stay" in western India was a worrisome

statement from the local law enforcement official who is

probably best able to judge the mood among Mumbai's large Muslim

community. His observations matched what we are increasingly

hearing from both Muslims and non-Muslims in the city. Local

youth, most of them poorly education and without a perspective,

are falling prey to extremist groups who use the images of the

2002 Gujarat carnage or the 1992 destruction of the Babri mosque

as a recruitment tool. The number of those who actually fall

prey to such recruitment tactics is very small, and most likely

restricted to certain sub-sects of the Sunni Muslim population.

Nonetheless, even a handful of such persons suffices to stain

the image of the entire Muslim community in the eyes of many

Indians, or to support an operation such as the July 11

bombings. End comment.

POMPER

OWEN

STILL NO BREAKTHROUGH IN MUMBAI TRAIN BOMBING INVESTIGATION, POLICE SAY

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