30 Minutes: The terror factor

Terrorism has taken on new dimensions in India. From the target of terror being Muslims, to Indian coastlines that are not secure in the least, from the LTTE to militants in Jammu and Kashmir to the ULFA, India is becoming a sitting duck for terror. Here is a collection of stories from all over India encapsulating the threat of terror in the country.

Target Muslims: The communal trigger

New Delhi: April 14, 2006: Soon after Friday's namaaz (prayer), two low intensity crude bomb explode in the historic Jama Masjid mosque in the Capital injuring worshippers.

September 8, 2006, 1400 hrs IST: Three bombs explode near a mosque in Malegaon on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat, killing 38 people and injuring more than 100.

February 18, 2007, 2355 hrs IST: Two compartments of the Samjhauta Express connecting Delhi to Lahore are firebombed. Sixty-eight people are killed and more than 50 injured.

The target of these terror attacks were Muslims - a phenomena that is being closely watched and studied by Indian terrorism experts.

Former joint director, Intelligence Bureau, M K Dhar, "This is being done for a long time by Pakistan and Bangladesh to try and divide India on communal lines."

Officials of Indian intelligence agencies in off-camera briefings told CNN-IBN Special Investigation Team that the firebombing of Samjhauta Express was meant to spark a communal conflict in India and its timing - just ahead of Pakistani Foreign Minister's visit to India - was aimed at derailing the ongoing India-Pakistan peace process.

Says former director, RAW, B Raman, "It's not so much the people whom they targetted, it's the train - a symbol of confluence between India and Pakistan that they have targetted."

The Samjhauta Express is back on track and the attack on it failed to derail the Indo-Pak peace process, but with Muslims becoming the new target of terror attacks one wonders whether this new-found maturity of India and Pakistan - of putting attacks behind them and proceeding with the peace talks - will endure?

(With inputs from Brijesh Pandey)

Kashmir's peace at stake

Srinagar: Who was behind the attack on the Samjhauta Express? Indian investigators try to piece together the available evidence and the Pakistani government is waiting for India to share that evidence.

In the meanwhile, in Jammu and Kashmir, separatist groups accept that with every terror attack outside the state, the stakes to keep the dialogue process between the two countries moving are getting higher.

Says All Party Hurriyat Conference Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, "I want to tell these forces that we will not be cowed down by the threats. We don't fear bombs and bullets. We have people with us and will continue the tripartite talks."

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq wants the terror groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir to give up guns and support the dialogue process.

This has upset some hardcore terror outfits, who, according to the police, had earlier lobbed a grenade on his house. The moderate Hurriyat, however, seems defiant.

Says former Hurriyat chairman, Maulana Abbas Ansari, "There are many agencies and nations who don't want India and Pakistan to resolve disputes.''

In this scenario of mistrust, Hurriyat leaders are jittery and nervous and the Jammu and Kashmir Police is alive to this situation.

Says IGP Kashmir, S M Sahay, "The militants have been asked to shed violence by Hurriyat. The natural way of thinking is that there would be repercussions and the militants will continue to make efforts to strike. The police across the country have been fairly successful in unearthing terrorist cells. Recoveries have been made in Bangalore and Delhi.''

Sahay says terrorism has crossed J&K frontiers and have moved across country as there are many inter-state Lashkar and Jaish sleeper cells.

"To strike terror in any part of the world, any part of the country, is not a difficult task. It just requires one or two people with a few kilograms of explosives to set off something like the Samjhauta Express. Lashkar and Jaish are terrorist outfits which are global in nature," says he.

The attack on the Samjhauta Express - seen as a symbol of peace between the two countries - has upset the Hurriyat leadership. Under increasing threats from militants to discontinue talks with New Delhi and mounting public pressure to deliver, the Hurriyat has very little placae to manouver.

(With inputs from Mufti Islah)

Trouble at sea

Vasai: Bombay High, 160 kms off Mumbai, produces a third of the country's oil, but what is the real security presence around these oil rigs?

The security is simply provided in the form of re-labeled fishing boats, which are hired by ONGC to keep trawlers 500 meters away from the platforms.

CNN-IBN's Special Investigation Team has accessed highly classified intelligence briefings on the new emerging threat - Maritime Terrorism.

National Security Advisor, M K Narayanan, has informed the Government that nearly 500 Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists are being trained in camps near Karachi to execute acts of maritime terrorism within India's exclusive economic zone as well as attack high value assets along India's vast 7,000 kms coastline.

The six-month training of the terrorists started last year in October and will be over in March this year. So the Indian national security agencies are already on high alert. But will the coast guard and Navy be able to prevent and deter any terror attack on the high seas?

A determined terrorist could load a fishing boat with explosives and ram into rigs and a suicide attack that will have a devastating effect. That's why the Navy and Coast Guard want faster patrol boats that can do the job of securing rigs more effectively.

But their request for faster interceptor boats that can clock speeds upto 40 knots has still not been met.

Says Former Flag Officer Defence Advisory Group, Rear Admiral Mahendra P Taneja, "The boats that we have to assist ONGC are slow and these are an interim arrangements until we get faster boats."

As a result, until those fast boats arrive, rigs worth several thousand crores continue to be vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Indian intelligence agencies are worried that Pakistan could misuse hundreds of Indian fishing boats it has seized over the years. These boats could be used by terrorists infiltrating into Indian waters and the Indian fishermen on the West Coast agree.

Says Chairman, Satpati Fishing Society, Rajendra Shantaram Meher, "The situation has become so bad that any boat can put an Indian fllag up and come in. When we go out to sea, for months we don't see a single coastguard ship."

The coastguard says they will need much greater force and a larger fleet to keep Indian waters safe.

"We need more air craft and ships, and we hope the Government will give us these soon. One has to still appreciate we cannot be in all the places at all the time," says IG (West) Coastguard, A Rajshekhar.

Thus, the coastal region remains porous and vulnerable to intruders.

(With inputs from V K Shashikumar & Ruksh Chatterji)

India's new concern: Coastal security

New Delhi: Securing India's 7,000 km long coastline is a serious challenge for India. The Government has sanctioned Rs 500 crore to implement a four-year plan to strengthen the coastal security infrastructure and prevent acts of terrorism in India's territorial waters.

A 100,000-ton oil tanker or a merchant vessel carrying thousand of tons of the inflammable fertiliser ingredient ammonium nitrate is hijacked, turned into a mega bomb and blown up after entering an Indian harbour.

These scenarios are examples of terror's new frontier.

With the bombing of USS Cole off Yemen in 2000 and a similar attack on the French oil tanker Limburg two years later, the sea is indeed the new playground of 21st century terrorism and India has to be prepared for it.

The LTTE already has its navy. Reports indicate that now even groups like the Laskhar and Jaish are training sea cadres and security agencies are preparing for worst-case scenarios.

Says former RAW officer, R S N Singh, "Some of our very sensitive nuclear installations are located on the sea coast."

The mismatch between the security challenge and the resources available to tackle it is stark.

The Indian Coast Guard has 76 ships, 24 aircraft and 18 helicopters to police a 7,600-kilometre coastline and a 2 million square km exclusive economic zone. And the Indian Navy can only patrol the high seas, not shallow coastal waters.

"They go undetected because it is very difficult to patrol the sea by heavy vessels because the profile of the sea is very shallow. Take for example Tamil Nadu which has a 1,000 km coastline and has over 400 landing points." says, Singh.

The LTTE, says Indian intelligence, is already helping Indian insurgent groups like the ULFA in the northeast to shop for arms and ammunition.

Says Singh, "Consignment of arms is picked up from the western coast of Thailand, and then they are transported by sea to Bangladesh. And from here they are taken by the land route."

It's clear that terror groups are preparing for sea-borne attacks and that the Indian security establishment must respond sooner rather than later.

(With inputs from Vishal Thapar)

Re-emergence of LTTE in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Coast has become ultra-sensitive with seizures of contraband consignments meant for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Four LTTE cadres and an Indian, along with ammunition including a suicide body belt and AK-56 rifles were captured - while sailing in Indian waters - in an LTTE Sea Tigers' boat recently.

The boat, lined with explosives, was destroyed by the police. But the question is - why were these men here? Were they on a suicide mission or were they perhaps carrying an LTTE arms consignment from India to Sri Lanka?

Intelligence agencies are convinced that the LTTE has been systematically procuring weapons and ammunition from India to enhance its fighting capabilities.

"The LTTE has been reviving it's arms movement from India. They had discontinued it after the Rajiv assassination, but with the war getting worse, they are trying to use India as a supply base," says former director of RAW, B Raman.

In the last two weeks alone, the Navy, coast guard and Tamil Nadu police have seized five different consignments - each carrying raw material for making explosives - all on their way to Sri lanka.

While the Navy has seized over six tonnes of aluminum-based metals, used for making IEDs, the Tamil Nadu police arrested three Indians and seized two tonnes of aluminum powder from a Madurai factory.

In January, four Sri Lankan Tamils and three Indians were arrested with tonnes of ball bearings that are used as shrapnel in bombs. Even live rockets were recovered from the sea bed near Rameswaram two months ago.

All this is perhaps a reminder that intelligence agencies have failed to identify the new supply routes and pick-up points of the LTTE on Indian soil.

"The covering material indicate a place in Gujarat. There are constraints of man power, we do our best. Whatever intelligence we get, we act on it. But certain things could still go on," says DGP of Tamil Nadu, D Mukherjee.

There is also the constant threat of the LTTE sending its cadres as refugees to India. The recent seizures in which Indians were also arrested, point to an even more serious twist.

"I do not know about the cadres, but the LTTE have been successful in hiring local Indians and that could make the conflict more serious," says SC Chandrahasan from the Organisation for Eelam Refugee Rehabilitation.

With the Indian coast line being long and porous, the LTTE have become familiar with the logistics and in fact, in Tamil Nadu, they even have ideological support.

The sum of all those factors means a formidable challenge to security forces, who are already combating a shortage of man power and lack of concrete intelligence.

(With inputs from T M Veeraraghav in Chennai)

The Northeast cauldron

Guwahati: Security agencies are now closely studying terror attacks specifically targeted at trains. Compared to the bombing of the London Tube and a train in Madrid, the Mumbai 7/11 terror strike that killed 187 commuters on the Suburban Rail Network and the recent firebombing of the Samjhauta Express were deadlier and fiercer.

Besides, there have been several attacks on trains across the country. The Jammu railway station was attacked twice and a total of 16 people were killed and 41 injured. Terrorists have also attacked trains in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in the last two years.

In India's Northeast, terror often lurks on the railway tracks. With more than 35 attacks on trains in the past one year alone, the trains remain the most vulnerable of all terror targets.

"When it comes to patrolling of tracks, there is a limitation for the simple reason there are huge stretches of lines from end to the other and it's simply not possible to guard every inch of it," says Chief PRO of Northeast Frontier Railway, TK Rabha.

In most of these attacks Programmable Time Device (PDT) has been the preferred weapon. The PDT or a timer is vital to any IED explosion. Fix it to a six volt battery and a detonator and you will have an IED ready.

A PDT can explode anything from crude explosive to RDX and with this a terrorist can time an explosion up to 200 days in advance. The cost of assembling a bomb is Rs 700 or even less.

And the PDTs have often been traced to ordnance factories in Pakistan via the ports of Bangladesh's Cox Bazaar port, a favorite shopping ground for groups like ULFA, LTTE and al-Qaida offshoots like Harkat-ul-Jihad.

Intelligence reports also indicate that since the '90s, militants from several Northeastern groups have gone to terror camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan to train in arms and explosives. And they were helped by Bangladesh intelligence services better known as DGFI.

"Basically, it is emerging that Pakistan and a few other countries are utilising some elements within Bangladeshi establishment to fuel trouble in India's Northeast and possibly open a new front in the eastern sector," says security analyst, Center for Development and Peace Studies, Guwahati, Wasbir Hussain,

And with proven links of Bangladeshi nationals in terror attacks like Varanasi blasts, the front is already open.

(With inputs from Deborshri Chaki in Assam)

The emergence of Dalit militancy

Mumbai: The Deccan Queen on fire in Ulhasnagar, two days after the desecration of an Ambedkar statue in Kanpur and two months after the Khairlanji killings, showing the extent of Dalit outrage in Maharashtra.

However, experts say the attacks were allegedly masterminded by educated youth leaders.

Says Editor, Workshop, Sunil Kadam, "The people who participated in pelting stones on the roads were all post-graduates and 100s of educated youth took part and guided the rest. This is clear in the incident of the Deccan Queen being torched."

In fact, the degree of co-ordination in the protests at Nagpur, make some police officers suspect a Naxalite hand.

Says Special IG, Anti-Naxal Operations, Pankaj Gupta, "The fact of the matter is that Khairlanji happened on Spetember 29 and these things took place more than a month afterwards. It is actually the Naxals who tried to use it as a reason to spread violence. For more than a month, there were no allegations, no agitations or morchas by the people."

Maoist literature, which was distributed after the Khairlanji killings openly promised to take revenge for the massacre, but Dalit leaders say this was an attempt to tarnish the image of the community.

Says Congress MLA, Nitin Raut, "If the whole Dalit community is looked as if we were Naxals, it would be a grave injustice to us."

Security experts say the move is in keeping with the aim of the Naxals to broaden their cadre base.

It is in Nagpur - India's fastest growing city - where life came to halt in the immediate aftermath of the Khairlanji killings and it is this city that is at the frontline of the hidden war against Naxal forces.

The Red arc today seems to be closing in on Nagpur, from the jungles of southern Madhya Pradesh, to the Naxal strongholds of Gondia and Gadchiroli and the well known Naxal regions of northern Andhar Pradesh.

Says Pankaj Gupta, "They have decided on a policy of mass mobilisation in the urban areas and are concentrating on it and incidents like khairlanji are an opportunity which they want to exploit."

That it took the Chief Minister 45 days to visit Khairlanji, may have made it easier for the Maoists to tap into Dalit anger.

"The sad reality is that it's only when the tensions boil over and the tremors are felt at the ministry that the administration and political machinery is goaded into action.

This is perhaps the single biggest flaw in our system that will push this long festering socio-economic problem one step further towards the brink of insurgency.

(With inputs from Piyush Pushpak in Nagpur and Ruksh Chatterji and Mandar Phanse in Mumbai)

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