Bomb attack bears al-Qaeda's signature
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD - The two low-intensity bomb blasts outside a cricket stadium in the
Indian city of Bangalore on Saturday bear the hallmarks of a broader plan by
Pakistani Ilyas Kashmiri, the chairman of al-Qaeda's military committee and
commander of his own 313 Brigade, which has extensive terror expertise,
especially in India and in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Kashmiri has previously orchestrated such low-level attacks in preparation for
much bigger operations, as happened prior to the devastating attack on Mumbai
in November 2008 in which 10
militants killed 173 people and wounded at least 308.
Two explosions injured 16 people outside Bangalore's M Chinnaswamy Stadium on
Saturday. Three other crude bombs were found and defused a day later. The
incident occurred before the start of an Indian Premier League (IPL) match - a
cricket competition involving international players.
In an exclusive message to Asia Times Online in February, Kashmiri warned of
attacks in India. "We warn the international community not to send their people
to the 2010 Hockey World Cup, IPL and Commonwealth Games [to be held in Delhi
in October]. Nor should their people visit India - if they do, they will be
responsible for the consequences." [1]
On Sunday, IPL authorities moved the games scheduled for Bangalore to Mumbai.
IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said in a press statement that even though the IPL
security agency found the blasts to be low-intensity, the authorities had no
alternative but to shift the matches.
Although some Indian authorities have attributed the blasts to illegal betting,
the attack fits into a pattern that Kashmiri has followed over the years. In
this case he is likely to have financed the local underworld to do the job.
In September 2008, five low-intensity synchronized blasts took place in the
capital, Delhi. At least 30 people were killed and over 100 injured. These were
preceded by an attack on May 13 in Jaipur in which nine blasts in 15 minutes
claimed 63 lives and injured 216. A second series of nine bomb blasts took
place on July 25 in Bangalore, claiming two lives. The next day in Ahmadabad a
spurt of 21 blasts killed 56 people and injured over 200.
In February this year there was a deadly bombing of the German Bakery in the
western Indian city of Pune which killed nine people, including two foreigners,
and injured 57. A shadow organization, the Indian Mujahideen, using words
similar to those used by Kashmiri in his message to Asia Times Online, claimed
responsibility for the Pune attack, saying it was in retaliation for 60 years
of persecution of Muslims in India and against Indian participation in the
US-led "war on terror".
There are several possible reasons for the low-level attacks:
To gauge how the Indian security forces react.
To test the level of coordination between various security agencies.
To see how long it takes elite forces to mobilize and in what manner.
To measure the response of the local populations.
Kashmiri's 313 Brigade adopts a similar approach in Pakistan. For instance,
low-intensity bombs went off recently in various parts of the capital,
Islamabad - there did not appear to be any particular reason for them. The same
happened in Lahore, where a series of bombs kept the city awake for most of the
night. Through these drills, 313 Brigade gets the full picture of how the
security forces react.
As Kashmiri warned, India is scheduled to stage several high-profile sports
events, including the Commonwealth Games and cricket's world cup next year. The
men's world field hockey championships went off without incident earlier this
year.
It could be that the IPL was selected only for collecting feedback. More such
drills could follow before a big attack.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He is
writing an exclusive account of al-Qaeda's strategy and ideology in an upcoming
book 9/11 and beyond: The One Thousand and One Night Tales of Al-Qaeda. He
can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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