‘Hardliners behind Ajmer attack’

NEW DELHI: While there were no specific inputs about a possible terror attack on the revered Ajmer Dargah, the bomb blast there fits into the pattern of recent attacks: Of liberal Muslim holy places being targeted during mass congregations, dependable intelligence analysts point out.

These analysts have been reading a clear pattern into the recent attacks across India, outside Jammu and Kashmir.

The bomb blasts in the Malegaon masjid, Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, and Samjhauta Express have all been targets that symbolise the liberal Islamic values of South Asia. And there have been several writings and statements from key Sunni extremists to attack such targets, or justify such attacks.

The conclusions drawn by the intelligence sources, mostly based on intercepted telephone conversations between India, Bangladesh and Pakistan and interrogations of some of the recently-arrested terrorists, seem to suggest the resurgence of a well networked and closely knit terror group in India’s heartlands.

It in all probability is a Sunni group driven by extreme hatred for a secular society, and which believes that it is the duty of every Muslim to carry out jihad to create the Ummah, the Muslims homeland.

“They have been repeatedly attacking these targets with two possible aims: One, to kick up passion among the Muslims and create communal tension. Second, because they dislike the ostentatious show of secular values in these places,” one source points out.

This theory — of the possibility of a Sunni terror group being behind all the recent attacks — come from senior intelligence sources.

They point out that there have been only two instances of Hindu extremist groups exhibiting capabilities to carry out blasts.

The two  include the one in Nanded in Maharashtra where the bombs went off while they were making it, and the second a minor incident in Red Fort in Delhi a few years ago.

“There have been no inputs whatsoever to show that there is a Hindu group out there, active and capable of carrying out such an attack,” says a senior intelligence official.

Over the past few months, the Intelligence Bureau had issued warnings to state polices that terrorists could try to strike at religious locations in the country during the  ongoing festival seasons. The blast today comes during the holiest of the periods for Muslims, with Eid-ul-Fitr, marking the end of Ramzan, just two days away.

Tomorrow is the last Friday of Ramzan, considered the most auspicious day. On Thursdays dargahs usually register a high number of devotees (especially yesterday being the last Thursday of the Ramzan month, it was packed with followers). Moreover, hundreds of devotees of the Hazrat Khwaja Muinuddin Chisti, many of them Hindus, were in the shrine when the blast took place.

Officials in the security establishment point out that the recent terror attacks seem to be well calibrated and “prompted by the same ideology”. They say that the dargah, one of South Asia’s most famous pilgrimage centers, is also a symbol of liberal Sufi traditions of the country.

The shrine, where people including Atal Behari Vajpayee and LK Advani have offered chaddars, is also among the favourite destinations for many others like General Pervez  Musharraf. The dargah, 135 kilometres from Jaipur, is where Chisti was buried in 1236.

It also has mosques built by Mughal rulers Shahjahan, Akbar and Jahangir.

Several intelligence inputs have pointed out that Abdul Shahid alias Bilal, a Hyderabad resident, may have been behind several of the recent attacks including the one on Hyderabad Mecca Masjid, the August 25 twin blasts in Hyderabad and the suicide attack on the STF headquarters in Hyderabad, among others.

In recent times, there have also been intelligence inputs that Bilal was killed in Karachi. And that Bilal has been replaced by a new controller for the Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami, the Bangladeshi branch of which seems to have recruited several local Muslims from within India over the past few years.