‘Hospital as target reveals new terror strategy’

Intelligence analysts and terrorism experts have averred that targeting of the civil hospital in the Gujarat capital revealed a tactic of heightened lethality which is also reflective of a new strategic objective on the part of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

“That the hospital in Ahmedabad was chosen as a target reflects an act of extreme terrorism on the part of the jihadist militants or the anti-Indian terrorist groups that the ISI controls. Extreme terror implies rash and raw brutality and is a more often than not a well-calibrated affair,” said Gurmeet Kanwal, director of Delhi-based Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS).

“Both the Bangalore and Ahmedabad attacks are part of an ongoing continuum indicative of external support and sponsorship on the part of the groups or clusters responsible for the strikes. The Indian Mujahideen is simply a cover used by the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Hajji) and its indigenous partner, the SIMI, to execute tasks assigned to them by the ISI,” Kanwal added.

Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management said, “The attack on the hospital was part of larger but centrally controlled terror operation. Also, the fact remains that any terror attack is a multi-step process with the member operatives of any militant group, ideologically integrated to the cause.” Intelligence analysts said the attack on the hospital smacked of “ruthlessness” on the part of the groups involved.

“What the Indian Mujahideen tried to convey is that it can decide to hit at targets randomly and at a time it chooses. That a hospital was handpicked as a target points to an element of savagery on the part of the militants or their handlers based abroad,” a senior intelligence official said.
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