BOMBING AT HISTORIC MOSQUE IN HYDERABAD KILLS FIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENNAI 000363

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/18/2017
TAGS: CASC IN KISL PGOV PTER
SUBJECT: BOMBING AT HISTORIC MOSQUE IN HYDERABAD KILLS FIVE

Classified By: Rohit Nepal, Reasons 1.4(a),(d),and (e)


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: A bomb exploded at Hyderabad's historic
Mecca Masjid, the city's oldest and largest mosque, today at
approximately 1:25 p.m. local time, killing five people and
injuring many others. The bomb detonated during Friday
prayers when the mosque was filled with up to 10,000
worshippers. There have been no reports of American citizens
killed or injured in the blast. The attack is part of a
disturbing trend of attacks on Muslim targets in India.
Although the perpetrators of these attacks are not known, the
methods used suggest jehadi extremists who may be trying to
isolate India's Muslims from the mainstream. END SUMMARY.

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5 DEAD IN BOMB ATTACK ON HYDERABAD'S MOST IMPORTANT MOSQUE
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2. (SBU) Police and government of Andhra Pradesh sources
confirmed to post that a bomb exploded at approximately 1:25
p.m. local time at Hyderabad's largest and most historic
mosque, the Mecca Masjid. A journalist source said that the
bomb detonated during Friday prayers, when there were
approximately 8,000 to 10,000 worshipers in the mosque.
Police and government sources confirmed that five people were
killed. Prabhakar Reddy, Additional Secretary to the Chief
Minister of Andhra Pradesh, said that there are at least
twenty-five casualties. There has been no claim of
responsibility for the attack.


3. (SBU) The police responded to the attack by quickly
sealing off the area of the mosque in order to maintain
control of the scene and preserve evidence. Prabhakar Reddy
told post that three unexploded devices were discovered and
defused by the police bomb squad. A journalist present at
the scene told post the police were using tear gas and lathi
charges to keep people from entering the mosque. He said
that scene outside of the mosque was tense. According to
media reports, people outside the mosque threw rocks at the
police.

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NO INDICATIONS AMCITS KILLED OR INJURED;
WARDEN MESSAGE ISSUED
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4 (SBU) Prabhakar Reddy told post that there is no
indication that American citizens or westerners were killed
or injured in the attack. Hyderabad is home to a small
number of traditional American expatriates and a much larger
community of ethnic Indian-American citizens, of which a
majority are Muslim. Most American citizens in Andhra
Pradesh, especially those of Indian heritage, do not register
with the Consulate. There are less than one thousand U.S.
citizens registered, but post believes that the total number
of American citizens in the state is somewhere between three
and ten times the small number of actually registered. Post
issued a warden message (cleared by Embassy New Delhi) to
advise American citizens of the possibility of communal
violence and to avoid travel in the area around Mecca Masjid
and Charminar.

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SITUATION SHOULD REMAIN UNDER CONTROL
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5. (C) Dr. R.K. Raghavan, a security consultant with Tata
Consultancy Services and former Director of the Central
Bureau of Investigation, said that he believed the Andhra
Pradesh police will maintain control over the situation and
that continuing communal violence is unlikely. He noted that
the Hyderabad Commissioner of Police, Balwinder Singh, is a
former CBI colleague who is very competent and, as a Sikh,

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has the advantage of not belonging to either the Hindu or
Muslim communities which have a history of violence between
them. An official with Andhra Pradesh's elite anti-naxalite
Greyhound unit agreed, saying that the Hyderabad police had
the situation well under control. He added additional units
of the Hyderabad police are stationed near the Mecca Masjid
on all Fridays and were immediately available to deal with
the aftermath of the bombing.

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DISTURBING TRENDS
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6. (C) This latest attack on Muslims in the Mecca Masjid
follows two other deadly attacks on primarily Muslim targets
in India in the past nine months, in Malegaon in September
2006 and on the Samjhautha Express train to Pakistan in
February 2007. They also follow the grenade blasts at the
Jama Masjid in Delhi which exploded harmlessly in April 2006.
In each case, the Indian government at the most senior
levels appealed to the populace for calm and to avoid
communal recriminations of a religious nature. In each case,
the assailants remain unknown. What is clear is that someone
is deliberately targeting Muslims. The other worrisome
trend is that terrorism has now spread from the North into
the South. The shooting at the Indian Institute for Sciences
in Bangalore, the disruption of a Lashkar-e-Tayiba sleeper
cell in Mysore, and other arrests last year in Hyderabad make
it pretty clear that the South will now have to be as
suspicious and on-edge as the cities of the North.

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WHODUNNIT?
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7. (C) Speculation about the motives of the attackers abounds
and includes the possibility of state-level political
disputes, jehadi terrorism, communal disputes, and even local
conflict between traders. The two primary suspects are
Muslim Jehadi extremists or right wing Hindu fanatics.
Police and intelligence sources rule out the latter, whom
they say are certainly antithetical to Muslims but have never
previously shown any ability to assemble and detonate
devices, or ever displayed a tendency to engage in terrorist
attacks. Hindu groups usually pick up knives, cudgels, and
crude firearms to wreak vengeance on innocent and unarmed
Muslims during mob-rage incidents in communal riots. The
sort of deliberate planning and technical skills inherent in
these attacks does not fit their pattern. As for Jehadi
groups, there is a growing sense of alarm here that they may
be responsible, since they have the clear and proven ability
to engage in these sorts of terrorist attacks and their cause
is served by isolatin
g Muslims further from the Indian mainstream and encouraging
Muslims to blame their Hindu neighbors for the unattributed
attacks.

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TO WHAT PURPOSE?
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8. (C) The clearest possible explanation for Muslims to kill
Muslims is to isolate normally tolerant Indian Muslims
further from the Indian mainstream, make them feel vulnerable
and under siege, and draw them to look inward for answers.
As Indian Muslims close ranks, the Jehadis must hope that
tolerant currents in Indian Islam will be diluted or even
eradicated, providing them with a steady stream of recruits
from one of the largest Muslim populations in the world.
Jehadi groups are using these tactics in Iraq among Sunnis,
and they may now also be doing so in India. Jehadis believe
the land of India needs to return to Muslim rule, and nothing
would suit their purposes more than to create a vibrant,

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domestic Muslim insurgency across the length and breadth of
India. In their minds, if Muslims have to die to achieve
such a goal, it is an acceptable sacrifice. Such attacks
also serve to sharpen the Indian divide with Pakistan,
eroding the peace process which has caused so much discomfort
for Jehadis in thei
r safe harbor in Pakistan. If such attacks disrupt efforts
by Delhi and Islamabad, the groups hope that their short
leash will be loosened. Ultimately, Muslim extremists hope
to not only end the peace process but incite an
India/Pakistan war that will in their minds settle the
India/Pakistan conflict once and for all. They full expect
that Indian Muslims to join a jihad that they hope will
eradicate India's secular government and "raise the green
flag of Islam over the red fort in Delhi."

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THE CHALLENGE FOR INDIA
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9. The challenge for the politicians, government, and
security services of India is manifold. Every effort must
continue to be made to make Muslim citizens feel empowered,
safe, and relevant. The Indian government must proceed with
efforts to give Muslims the additional help they need to
secure the benefits of India's growing economy and
pluralistic political system. Divisive rhetoric from Hindu
and Muslim extremists alike must be muzzled. Politicians and
leaders must continue to call on all Indians not to fall into
the trap of religious recrimination, reviving the horrors of
communal violence that has killed millions in Partition and
since. Security agencies must never forget that not every
Muslim is a bad Muslim, and that they must show greater
sensitivity and a lighter touch even as they weed out the bad
apples. Security agencies must also learn to recruit Muslims
who can do a better job than the current crop to infiltrate
domestic networks. Finally, India has to continue to proceed
with rapprocheme
nt with Pakistan, in order to ensure Islamabad's firm check
on the terrorist groups there. India's great advantage in
all this is a free and vibrant press and a transparent and
robust democracy, which allows Muslims greater freedoms than
in any other Muslim majority or plurality country on earth.
The Indian peoples' natural predilection for tolerance must
rule the day if India is to avoid the terrorists' sustained
desire to spark the flames of ethnic conflagration in this
massive country. Muslim extremists based in Pakistan have
failed to appreciate the reality of India's Muslims. Despite
closer relations between India and Pakistan and closer
personal interaction, many Pakistani Muslims continue to
believe that Indian Muslims are an oppressed minority waiting
for "liberation" by their Pakistani brethren. They could not
be further from the truth, as the failure of each terrorist
attack to set-off a communal conflagration demonstrates. It
is a characteristic of fanaticism that it refuses to accept
overwhel
ming evidence contrary to long-held beliefs. That is why,
despite the repeated failure of Islamic extremism in India,
we can expect the attacks to keep on coming.


10. This message was coordinated with Embassy New Delhi.
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