ANDHRA PRADESH COP SEES HYDERABAD LINK TO JAIPUR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENNAI 000203 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2018 TAGS: ASEC IN KISL PGOV PREL PTER SUBJECT: ANDHRA PRADESH COP SEES HYDERABAD LINK TO JAIPUR BLASTS REF: A) CHENNAI 110 B) 2007 CHENNAI 530 CHENNAI 00000203 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Acting Principal Officer Mark Fry for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: One of Andhra Pradesh's top anti-terrorist cops said the trail of evidence in the May 13 Jaipur bombings leads to Hyderabad. The detonators used in Jaipur have been traced to the district adjoining Hyderabad and the shapes of the charges used in Jaipur are similar to the August 2007 bombings in Hyderabad. The officer described the challenges of setting up the state's new anti-terrorism unit and scoffed at neighboring Chhattisgarh's two year old anti-Maoist training school. End summary. ¶2. (C) On May 30, Thirumal Rao, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Special Investigations Bureau, surveyed state and national efforts to combat terrorism. Rao has headed up the state's newly formed anti-terrorism unit -- dubbed "Octopus" -- since March. Octopus was formed in the wake of the August 2007 twin bombings in Hyderabad (ref B). Prior to joining Octopus, Rao spent three years with Andhra Pradesh's anti-Maoist unit (the "Greyhounds"). Jaipur bombing trail leads back to Hyderabad -------------- ¶3. (C) Rao said that the trail of evidence in the May 13 terrorist bombings in Jaipur, Rajasthan, leads back to Hyderabad. He told us that the detonators used in the Jaipur bombings were traced to Nalgonda district (approximately 50 miles from Hyderabad). This was not surprising, he said, because the detonators were the type used in commercial mining and Nalgonda district is home to a large mining industry. Rao added that the similarity in the shape of the charges used in Jaipur in May and Hyderabad in August 2007 lead the police to believe that the same bomb maker made all of the devices. He said, "We think it is very possible that some Hyderabad boys were involved in the Jaipur bombings." Pointing the finger at the neighbors -------------- ¶4. (C) Rao said terrorism in India has its roots in Pakistan and Bangladesh. He said that many young Muslims end up in these neighboring countries where they receive training in terrorist methods. He said that terrorist groups in India "definitely receive outside direction." When asked if there was evidence of these external links, Rao was dismissive, indicating that in his mind the links are so self-evident that no evidence was required. Rao changed the subject saying that "the vast majority of Muslims: Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi, are all good law-abiding people." Rao went on to explain that in a country with more than 150 million Muslims, there is a major problem if even one tenth of one percent are connected to terrorist groups. Octopus anti-terror squad is slowly coming together -------------- ¶5. (C) Rao described the difficulties of starting a new police unit from scratch. He said he spent the first month consumed with the basics: pushing the funding through the bureaucracy, identifying and recruiting staff, finding and then equipping an office space, obtaining vehicles, etc. According to Rao, he has made substantial progress on all fronts, in large part due to the fact that Octopus has support at the highest levels of the state government. He said they have office space, vehicles, and about 100 officers (of a total authorized force size of 1600). (Note: The quick progress Rao described seems implausible given the generally glacial pace of the Indian bureaucracy. A journalist who follows the Andhra Pradesh police closely told us that to his knowledge Octopus has a few senior officers but does not have any working level staff yet. End note.) Rao told us that as an anti-terror CHENNAI 00000203 002.2 OF 002 unit Octopus will be heavily weighted towards intelligence gathering. Scoffs at neighboring Chhattisgarh's anti-Maoist training -------------- ¶6. (C) Rao, who recently transferred after three years working with the Greyhounds, said that Andhra Pradesh continues to work with neighboring Chhattishgarh and Orissa to tackle the Maoists. He said success in Andhra Pradesh has pushed the Maoists to the neighboring states, which are poorly equipped to handle the insurgency. Rao confirmed that the Greyhounds conduct operations across the border inside of Chhattisgarh. He cited the March 18 operation (ref A) as one example of such an operation and suggested that this type of cross-border policing takes place with some frequency. Rao added that in the past Andhra Pradesh provided a substantial amount of training for Chhattisgarh's police. But he said the training has diminished with the 2005 establishment of the Counterterrorism and Jungle Warfare Training College in Kanker, Chhattisgarh. Rao told us that that the six week training course given to Chhattisgarh police at Kanker is "totally inadequate." He said Brigadier B.K. Panwar, who runs the school, mistakenly emphasizes quantity of students trained rather than the quality. According to Rao, a much longer, more intensive training program is required to properly create the esprit de corps required to fight the Maoists. In Rao's view the training at Kanker is a "media show." ¶7. (C) RSO Mumbai shares this impression from his May 2006 visit to the Kanker training facility. Panwar was initially staffed with Indian Army trainers with experience in jungle warfare. By May 2006, the government of India had withdrawn these trainers, and Panwar was forced to rely on former trainees as his new cadre of trainers, and the quality of the training consequently went down. RSO Mumbai feels that while Panwar is well-intentioned, his goal has beento train as many officers as possible, with little sustained support and training once they were put into the field. FRY