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

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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

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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