POLICE BELIEVE MUSLIMS TARGETED MUSLIMS IN MALEGAON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MUMBAI 001996 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT. FOR S, P, C, S/P, SCT, SCA, INR S/CT FOR CRUMPTON, PALMER, ALLEGRA; NSC FOR MILLARD/MAHONEY DNI FOR NEGROGPONTE/POWELL/SHEDD E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/8/2016 TAGS: PREL PTER PGOV KISL ASEC CASC IN SUBJECT: POLICE BELIEVE MUSLIMS TARGETED MUSLIMS IN MALEGAON BOMBINGS REF: A: MUMBAI 1653; B: MUMBAI 890 CLASSIFIED BY: Michael S. Owen, Consul General, Consulate General Mumbai, State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) Summary and Comment -------------- ¶1. (C) Maharashtra police are now convinced that Muslim extremists purposefully targeted other Muslims in the September 8 bombings in Malegaon that killed 31 persons and injured over ¶200. The police have told us that Muslim extremists hoped to inflame communal passions in a city with a history of Hindu/Muslim violence. The police doubt that Hindu extremists had the capability to perpetrate the attacks, and have shared their reasons for believing so with us. Investigators also believe that the Malegaon bombings are probably linked to the Mumbai train bombings, yet have not been specific in both their public and private statements. Not all of our contacts, particularly those in the Muslim community, are willing to believe that Muslims purposely targeted other Muslims in Malegaon, yet we have no reason at this time to question our police contacts' professional judgment. In any case the investigations into the Malegaon bombings shed more light on Muslim extremism in western India, and demonstrate that groups such as LeT and SIMI are firmly entrenched in the region and are seeking to attack the Indian heartland's religious harmony and social fabric. End summary and comment. Six Muslim Men Arrested -------------- ¶2. (U) In recent days the Maharashtra police have arrested six Muslim men in connection with the September 8 explosions in Malegaon that killed 31 persons and injured over 200, nearly all Muslims (ref A). Police sources told the media that they arrested Shabbir Masiullah, aka Shabbir Batterywalla, 34, Noorul Hooda Samsudoha, 23, Salman Farsi, 35, and Farogh Makhdomi, 33, Raees Ahmed, no age given, and Masiullah's brother-in-law, whose name was not given. Some of the men are from Malegaon, others from the Mumbai area. Police believe that Masiullah was the ring leader of the plot. Malegaon Linked to Mumbai Train Bombings? -------------- ¶3. (C) J.J. Singh, who until November 3 was second in command in the state's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS),told Pol/Econ Chief on November 2 that the police also had evidence linking the three men to the Mumbai bombings. He would not be more specific. Later, however, the local media quoted ATS chief K.P. Raghuvanshi as only saying that the police only believed that "a distant but definite link" existed between the two bombings. In any case both Raghuvanshi and P.S. Pasricha, the state's Director General of police, told the media that some of the men were either linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and/or the banned violent extremist Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the two groups they believe are responsible for the Mumbai train bombings. MUMBAI 00001996 002 OF 003 Muslim Groups Clearly Behind Malegaon Bombings, Police Say -------------- -------------- ¶4. (U) BACKGROUND: Several bombs exploded nearly simultaneously on the afternoon of September 8 near a mosque and a Muslim cemetery in a heavily visited market area of Malegaon. Police believe that the bombings were timed to hit Muslims leaving Friday prayers on the eve of an important Muslim holy night. About 70 percent of Malegaon's population is Muslim, and the city has a history of communal tensions. END BACKGROUND. ¶5. (C) Both publicly and privately, state police express their conviction that Muslim extremists are behind the bombings. Singh told us that the police have evidence that the perpetrators of the bombings were Muslims who intentionally targeted other Muslims. Malegaon was a hub for Muslim extremists and provided ideal conditions to plan and execute the bombings, Singh said. Extremist Hindu groups did not have skills or background to prepare such explosives, he told us. The potent military explosive RDX was used in the bombings, he pointed out. While extremist Muslim groups are commonly apprehended with the explosive, Singh said, similarly extremist Hindu groups are not. The Muslim perpetrators purposely used small amounts of the RDX explosive to limit the damage caused by the blasts. Had they wanted to, Singh argued, they could have caused far more causalities by using a larger dosage of RDX, but they did not do so because their aim was just to ignite religious tensions, not to kill as many people as possible. Most of the persons died in the stampede that following the bombings, Singh claimed, and not in the bombings themselves. Muslims Question Investigators' Claims -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Most of our Muslim contacts are taking a "wait and see" attitude towards the Malegaon bombings, and a few admit that Muslims were probably responsible. Yet some of our Muslim contacts - ignoring current events in Iraq -- vehemently deny that Muslims could have perpetrated attacks against other Muslims in an attempt to inflame communal passions. Zaheer Rizvi, a Congress politician and Secretary of the All India Ulema Council, told us that most Muslims have little trust in police pronouncements in both the Mumbai and Malegaon investigations. Police generally have an anti-Muslim bias and were quick to jump to conclusions that Muslims are responsible for the Malegaon bombings because they have devoted too little time to pursing Hindu extremists, Rizvi said. He said he suspects that fringe groups associated with the RSS were probably behind the Malegaon bombings. ¶7. (SBU) In a separate conversation, India Today correspondent Uday Mahurkar also doubted that Muslims were behind the group. Mahurkar's comments are noteworthy because he regularly argues that Muslim extremism in western India is growing and that the police still underestimate its reach and its threat. In his view, Hindu groups probably carried out the bombings as revenge for the Mumbai train explosions. Hindu extremist groups were developing the expertise to carry out such bombings, he said. As an example he cited the case of Naresh Rajkondwar, a leading member of the fundamentalist Hindu group Bajrang Dal in whose home a bomb exploded earlier this year and killed two people. MUMBAI 00001996 003 OF 003 He also doubted that LeT would carry out such an operation in Malegaon, a city where it most likely has numerous sleeper cells. (Note: Police seized explosives and weapons in Malegaon earlier this year -- see ref B -- and arrested several Muslims who they suspect are LeT operatives. End note). LeT would not do anything to attract more attention to itself in a city where it has numerous operatives and significant support, Mahurkar argued. Mahurkar isn't alone in his views. Several of Delhi PolCounselor's interlocutors during a recent visit to Mumbai felt that Malegaon might have been a Hindu extremist retaliation for the Mumbai bombings. They attributed the explosion in Rajkondwar's home to experiments with explosives that went haywire. Comment -------------- ¶8. (C) With the exception of some of our Muslim contacts, most of our interlocutors in Mumbai do not question the police assertion that Muslims purposely targeted other Muslims on September 8 in Malegaon. We, too, have no reason to believe that Pasricha, Raghuvanshi and Singh are communally biased, and hence we are not ready to doubt their professional judgment. Based on our observations of the Mumbai train bombings investigations, however, we urge caution whenever Maharashtra police officers claim, publicly or privately, that they have solid evidence in either of the two investigations. Disturbingly, it now seems beyond question that groups such as LeT and SIMI have established an effective series of cells, equipped with weapons and explosives, in Muslim communities throughout western India. There also exists nearly universal consensus among our Mumbai contacts, including those in the Muslim community, that LeT and SIMI are responsible for the Mumbai bombings. Yet investigators appear to be struggling to conclusively link individual operators of these groups to both the Mumbai and Malegaon bombings. The investigation into the Mumbai bombings, for example, has made little headway in recent weeks, and the police are now visibly more cautious when commenting about the investigation to the media. But we are not ready to believe the arguments of some of our Muslim interlocutors that a lack of a smoking gun should cast doubt on the general direction of the investigations. Even if it turns out that Muslims did not plan the Malegaon bombings, the investigations show that Muslim extremism is now firmly entrenched in western India, and working to sow the seeds of religious tension in the Indian heartland. End comment. OWEN