Police investigators are increasingly convinced they know who was behind the Madrid-style bombings. Only two terrorist organizations in the region have the skills and resources for such a massive, coordinated attack–and this, police believe, was a joint operation by both networks. One alleged partner is Lashkar-i-Taiba, a Kashmiri separatist group that has been outlawed since 2002 in Pakistan, the country where it began 16 years ago. The other group is the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a homegrown jihadist outfit that is spreading rapidly among disaffected young Muslims across much of India. Both groups are denying any involvement, but police say evidence against them is piling up.
The authorities released photos of three bearded young men in connection with the attacks. Police identified one of them as the fugitive ringleader of a dozen alleged SIMI operatives who were arrested two months ago in Aurangabad, some 220 miles east of Mumbai. In the course of that sweep, police seized dozens of AK-47 automatic rifles, crates of ammunition and more than 100 pounds of military-grade plastic explosive. The arrests had resulted from an investigation that began earlier this year after cops apprehended a pair of suspected Lashkar operatives getting off a train in downtown Mumbai. Police say the men had two pounds of plastic explosive in their possession.
The two organizations are united by the same wild-eyed cause: a dream of bringing the entire Subcontinent back under Muslim rule for the first time since the 19th century. As followers of a harshly intolerant strain of Saudi-style Wahhabi Islam, they reject any notion of majority rule in a land where “polytheist infidel” Hindus outnumber Muslims. The Lashkar-SIMI partnership has been growing for several years, and in the past year or so Indian police believe that the two groups have collaborated on a series of attacks, including the bombing of a temple this March in Hinduism’s holiest city, Varanasi, and the October bombing of two New Delhi markets, killing more than 60.
The alliance makes both groups more dangerous than ever. Thousands of armed guer-rillas are believed to have attended Lashkar’s training camps in Pakistani Kashmir. Indian police think SIMI may have 500 hard-core members and as many as 20,000 sympathizers who can be relied on for assistance and shelter. With SIMI’s support, Lashkar’s fighters can now operate deep inside India without a lifeline to Pakistan’s side of the border. That development has raised new fears of international terrorism on Indian soil. “Al Qaeda is now trying to take advantage of Muslim anger,” warns B. Raman, a former senior Indian intelligence official. Lashkar has always denied any ties to Al Qaeda. But the echoes of Madrid are deafening.
