Author: Aziz Haniffa in Washington, DC
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: November 27, 2008
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/27mumbai-all-signs-of-alqaeda-inspired-attack.htm
Professor Deepa Ollapally, whose new book
The Politics of Extremism in South Asia published by Cambridge University
Press has just been released, has said the scale and sophistication of the
Mumbai terrorist attacks leave one with the impression that it has all of
the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda inspired attack, probably well-financed by outside
forces.
Ollapally, professorial lecturer and associate
director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the Elliot School of International
Affairs at George Washington University, also told rediff.com that the name
Deccan Mujahideen, akin to the earlier terrorist attack claimants calling
themselves Indian Mujahideen, was obviously a ploy to confuse people that
the terrorists were indigenous and home-grown, when it was highly unlikely
it was so.
"Not only is it unprecedented, but also
the fact that this group apparently laying claim for this -- the Deccan Mujahideen
-- is completely unknown, and so the question is, these new names are now
coming up, no one really knows what the true source of these are."
Ollapally said, "It's almost as if they
are playing a guessing game, and it's a pattern you've seen in other places.
You've seen it, when a group is banned they come up with a different name.
But, also having these different names, it creates a lot of confusion because
Indian Mujahideen, Deccan Mujahideen, they are trying to associate themselves
as being internal, indigenous, home-grown and all that."
"But the point is, to what extent is
that really the case -- one doesn't know that," she said. "It's
almost as if that is their intent, to show that it is internal when it may
not be so at all."
Ollapally said, "The way in which this
was carried out, it does suggest that they needed some fairly sophisticated,
coordinated planning. And, if the reports are true about their rounding up
Americans and British, then it sounds like there is an Al Qaeda hand possibly,
which again would be the most obvious difference between every other terrorist
attack that has gone on before (in India)."
"And, then the point of, what is the
motive for this. It's not as if something sparked it off. It's really not
clear. The question is, whether it's a new phenomenon. Is it a new strategy?
What then is the objective?"
Ollapally acknowledged that "this is
definitely going to hurt India -- from tourism to business. That was obviously
one of the motives, but the question is the timing. Why now?"
She acknowledged, "Who knows if it had
anything to do with the presidential transition here in the US? And, there
are elections coming up in India also. So, that's the other thing -- whether
it is to destabilise India. And, there have been criticism that the current
government has not been acting swiftly and so forth," to combat the scourge
of terrorism in India.
"So, they can use this for electoral
reasons also," Ollapally said, "but again, all this is complete
speculation."
However, she agreed that "there has been
all this speculation about testing the US, the incoming administration, although
this doesn't really jell. I mean, if it were the Al Qaeda and they wanted
to test Obama, there are other places where they can do it that would be much
more front and centre that would capture the US attention much more. So, this
seems probably a little far-fetched."
Ollapally also speculated that "on the
one hand, you've got the Indian foreign minister and the Pakistani foreign
minister speaking and they have been making some progress and so forth, so
this could be to destabilise that -- to throw these talks off."
She recalled that "when the Indian embassy
in Afghanistan was bombed, the US intelligence did find the Pakistani intelligence
connected. So, you cannot rule out any of these things."
"It's one thing to have summitry between
India and Pakistan, but the point is, unless Pakistan really cracks down on
the groups that operate there -- and that requires almost a mini internal
war on terrorism -- this is not going to stop."
Ollapally said the Pakistanis evidently don't
want to do this "and part of the reason is, of course, it's an instrument
that they still need to hold on to."
She said, "This difference about this
to me is that fact that they've arrested some people. This is the first time
really that they've been able to get the suspects on the spot. Earlier, they
had never been able to get the suspects on the spot. So, the question is,
whether they'll be able to have some better information because of that --
one would assume so."
Ollapally argued that the simple notion that
this was a case of disaffected youth carrying this out seemed highly unlikely.
"There are disaffected youth in a lot of places. But, to go from disaffection
to action is something different -- it's a giant leap."
"So, you can't simply say that there's
a huge amount of disaffected youth and, therefore, they carried it out,"
was a stretch. "I think you need that intervening critical variable and
so this is usually some other organisation or group that has much more resources
and the skill to implement this thing."
Ollapally said this is why she strong believes
that "this particular attacks would be some small group that came out
of nowhere and calling themselves the Deccan Mujahideen. Somehow, that's really
out of character with everything in the past, if you see the way in which
these things (most other recent terrorist attacks) have happened in India
-- at least of this scale and sophistication."
Ollapally said it is imperative "to get
to the root of some of these things, because otherwise this is not going to
go away. This is a nightmare -- a huge problem, and with all of the implications
that come with it."
