MUMBAI BOMBING INVESTIGATIONS REVEAL DETAILS OF MUSLIM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 MUMBAI 001652

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

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

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/8/2016
TAGS: PREL PTER PGOV KISL CASC ASEC PK IN
SUBJECT: MUMBAI BOMBING INVESTIGATIONS REVEAL DETAILS OF MUSLIM
EXTREMISM IN WESTERN INDIA

REF: A: MUMBAI 1360; B: MUMBAI 1506; C: MUMBAI 1332

CLASSIFIED BY: Michael S. Owen, Consul General, Consulate
General Mumbai, State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



Summary

--------------




1. (C) Although police have now arrested 14 men in connection
with the July 11 Mumbai train bombings, investigators still
appear to know little about the actual perpetrators of the
well-planned act of terrorism that killed 187 people and left
few traces. All those arrested have been charged on the basis
of their suspected connections with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and
the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI),the two
groups that investigators firmly believe are responsible for the
attacks. The arrested men's links to the attack itself are
appearing more difficult to prove, although P.S. Pasricha,
Maharashtra's Director General of Police, told the Consul
General that he's convinced that the arrested were involved in
the bombings. The investigation is providing more insight into
the reach and methods of Islamic extremist groups in western
India. Police and our contacts in the Muslim community now
acknowledge that many cells of young men, trained and
indoctrinated abroad by professional jihadist groups, are buried
deep inside Muslim communities in Mumbai and throughout
Maharashtra. Their numbers, both in absolute and relative
terms, appear to be miniscule, and their radical mindset is not
reflective of thinking of the vast majority of the region's
large and diverse Muslim community. The July 11 bombings,
however, demonstrate that they can be used effectively as a
support network for terrorist acts. Worrisome is also
Pasricha's claim that police now fear that some cells may now
have been empowered to plan and execute acts on their own. End
summary.



Fourteen Men Arrested in Connection with Bombings....

-------------- --------------




2. (U) Fourteen men have now been arrested in connection with
the July 11 train bombings in Mumbai that killed 187 people.
According to media reports, police made three arrests on
September 7 in a Mumbai suburb. On September 3 a Mumbai court
charged suspected Pakistan militant Akmal Hashmi with conspiracy
after Hashmi apparently provided investigators with information
on the perpetrators of the bombings. According to media reports
that we have been unable to verify with Mumbai police, Hashmi
told investigators that 17 men trained by the Kashmir militant
group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) carried out the bombings. Indian
police in Kashmir arrested Hashmi on August 23 and turned him
over to Mumbai authorities on September 2. Several media
outlets quote unidentified Kashmir police officials as
questioning the reliability of Hashmi, however.




3. (U) On September 3 Mumbai police sent two of those arrested
earlier, Tanvir Ansari and Kamal Ahmed (ref A) to a special
police facility in Bangalore for lie-detector tests. Media
outlets quote unnamed police officials as saying that the two
men have information on several of the seven bombings, a claim
that we could not corroborate with Mumbai police.


MUMBAI 00001652 002 OF 004




....Yet Links to July 11 Remain Unclear

--------------




4. (C) It remains unclear what, if any, direct role that those
arrested actually played in the train bombings. All have been
charged with crimes related to their alleged affiliation to
banned terror groups. Police officials have told us that the
arrested were all conclusively linked to either LeT or the
banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI),the two
groups suspected of conducting the bombings. Yet the head of
the state's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) told us (ref B) that the
police could not link those arrested to either the planning or
execution of the attacks. In a August 23 meeting with the
Consul General, however, Maharashtra Director General of Police
P.S. Pasricha said that the arrested men were "100 percent"
involved in the bombings. Pasricha said that the men had been
part of the support cells that facilitated the actual bombers,
but did not specify in greater detail what the police know about
the men's actual role. Another "80 to 90" persons were in
custody but had not been charged, Pasricha said. Since the
August 23 conversation, however, none of these persons had been
charged.



Police Still Trying to Identify One Victim of Bombing

-------------- --------------




5. (C) Pasricha confirmed that forensic experts had yet to
determine whether the one unidentified victim of the bombings
was in fact one of the perpetrators. Police had created a
physical copy of the deceased's face in the hope that it will
help investigators identify the victim. The police are not
ruling out the possibility that one of the terrorists died in
the bombing after no one came forth to claim the body and after
a little-known group taking credit for the bombing said that all
but one of the perpetrators returned to Kashmir successfully.
Hashmi, the Kashmiri arrested on September 3, reportedly told
the press that 16 of the 17 LeT members who carried out the
attacks had survived.




6. (C) Pasricha reiterated his conviction (ref C) that
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) was
"100 percent" involved in the bombings. He said that
investigators had proof that Kamal Ahmed Ansari, arrested in his
village near the India-Nepal border in Bihar, had smuggled
weapons and explosives over the border that ultimately found
their way to Mumbai.



Investigation Reveals Details About Local Terror Cells

-------------- --------------




7. (C) While top-level police officials still appear to
understand little about the actual planning and execution of the
bombings, our discussions reveal that the investigation is
giving police more insight into the reach and methods of Islamic
extremist groups in western India. Pasricha seconded
Raghuvashni's comments (reported in ref B) that local extremist

MUMBAI 00001652 003 OF 004


groups had become widespread and active in western India.
Pasricha said that SIMI groups were particularly active in many
second-tier cities of western Maharashtra with sizable Muslim
populations. He specifically mentioned Jalgaon and Akola, two
cities located to the northeast of Mumbai, as centers of the
SIMI movement. Pasricha said other cities named by those
detained were Pune, Kolhapur, Maleaon and Beed, all cities in
northwestern or southwestern Maharashtra. Pasricha said that
SIMI had established large numbers of cells throughout Muslim
communities. The cells were typically very small -- two to
three persons was the normal size -- and operated on a strict
need-to-know basis. All of those arrested in connection with
the July 11 bombings had received training in Pakistan, he said.
Echoing Raghuvashni's description of the men, Pasricha said
they had returned from Pakistan "brainwashed" and "hardened."




8. (C) Pasricha said that many of those arrested told
investigators that they returned from Pakistan with instructions
to "lay low" and await a "green signal" from liaisons. All were
unaware of the role they would be asked to play in future
terrorist plots, of the actual background of their liaison
contacts, or the ultimate target of any such plots. In any case
the men appeared to have been trained to carry out support and
logistics assignments, he said. Pasricha added, however, that
in recent months investigators were receiving intelligence that
some cells had become more empowered to plan and execute acts on
their own. He was not more specific.




9. (C) Pasricha also provided the Consul General with background
on the August 22 shootout between two alleged Pakistani
operatives and police in Mumbai. Pasricha said police, acting
on a tip, detained Pakistan citizen Mohammad Riyaz on the
evening of August 21. They found a weapon and RDX explosives
Riyaz's vehicle. The suspect directed police to an abandoned
government apartment complex in the Malabar Hill area of the
city where they located and killed another Pakistan citizen,
whom Pasricha identified as Mohammad Ali, in a gunfight. Police
found 3.5kg of RDX and 1.5kg of ammonium nitrate, so called
"pencil" timers, an AK-47 gun and a 9 mm pistol. Pasricha said
the police were unaware if the two men were linked to the July
11 bombings, but he said that the find was clear evidence that
the men were part of a plot to conduct some sort of terrorist
attack in Mumbai or elsewhere.



Comment

--------------




10. (C) It remains to be seen whether the latest arrest will
actually lead to a breakthrough in the investigation. Our most
recent discussion with Police DG Pasricha, however, only
confirms the view that investigators still know little about the
perpetrators and their exact modus operandi, although police
appear to believe beyond any doubt that LeT and SIMI are
responsible for the well-planned and well-executed terror
attacks. At the same time, the investigation is revealing more
details about the reach of Islamic fundamentalist groups in
western India. Our sources in the Mumbai police and in the
Muslim community now acknowledge that countless cells of young
men, trained and indoctrinated abroad by professional jihadist
groups, are buried deep inside Muslim communities in Mumbai and
throughout Maharashtra. Their numbers, both in absolute and
relative terms, appear to be miniscule, and their mindset is not
reflective of that of the vast majority of the region's large
and diverse Muslim community. The July 11 bombings, however,

MUMBAI 00001652 004 OF 004


demonstrate that they can be used effectively as a support
network for terrorist acts. Particularly worrisome is
Pasricha's message that some of these groups may now be
empowered to act on their own. The July 11 attacks failed to
incite communal passions, and Mumbai Muslims remain proud that
their communities are not breeding groups for terrorism, despite
Muslims' widespread dissatisfaction with their status in Indian
society and the perceived failure of the Indian judicial and
political system to hold accountable those who committed crimes
against Muslims in Babri and Gujarat. That existing peaceful
communal balance in Mumbai could change, however, if local cells
begin to initiate their own acts of terror. End comment.
OWEN