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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MUMBAI 001310 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR OPS CENTER, S/CT, SCA/INS, DS, DS/IP/ITA, DS/IP/SCA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  7/14/2016 
TAGS: PREL PTER PGOV KISL CASC ASEC PK IN
SUBJECT: AS DEATH TOLL NEARS 200, CONTOURS OF MUMBAI BOMBING 
INVESTIGATION BEGIN TO EMERGE 
 
REF: A) MUMBAI 1309, B) MUMBAI 890 AND PREVIOUS C) MUMBAI 1261 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Michael Owen, Consul General, Consulate General 
Mumbai, State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
Summary 
 
------- 
 
¶1. (C) Despite the local media's poor track record in handling 
on-the-record remarks, enough reputable media outlets have 
directly attributed a particular theory of the Mumbai train 
bombings to senior police leadership that the contours of the 
investigation are emerging.  If the state's media is to be 
believed, the state's top police leadership has squarely blamed 
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for orchestrating the bombings and have 
accused the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) of 
providing operational assistance.  The top three suspects, 
believed to be Indian Muslims, were already on the state's 
most-wanted list for their suspected role in the large arms and 
explosives cache seized in Aurangabad and environs in May. 
Police reportedly also suspect that the men were behind an 
unsuccessful train bombing in Ahmedabad and the discovery of 
bomb making components at the Mumbai/Byculla station earlier 
this year.  The linkage of the Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Aurangabad 
events, and the LeT/SIMI nexus, are consistent with the view, 
which we repeatedly hear from both police and Muslim contacts, 
that outside groups use local Muslim communities for courier and 
logistical support to launch terror attacks in western India. 
If, however, local Muslims were among the masterminds of the 
July 11 bombings, it would signal a new and worrisome sign that 
home-grown terrorist capabilities may be emerging in western 
India's large and diverse Muslim community.  End summary. 
 
Leads Point to LeT and Shadowy SIMI 
 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) As local media and the public attempt to make sense out 
of the July 11 bombings that killed, at latest count, around 200 
persons, inconsistent versions of events and conflicting 
conspiracy theories abound between news casts and newspapers. 
Senior Maharashtra police officials have yet to make official 
public statements on who they believe to be responsible for the 
bombings.  The situation is further confused because local 
journalists frequently create quoted or on-the-record remarks 
out of whole cloth. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Maharashtra Chief Minister V. Deshmukh told the media 
on July 13 that the police were still searching for leads to the 
perpetrators behind the bombings.  At the same time, however, 
enough reputable media outlets directly attributed a particular 
theory of the bombings to senior police leadership that it 
merits immediate attention.  According to these media outlets, 
the Maharashtra Director General of Police Dr. P.S. Pasricha, 
Mumbai Police Commissioner A.N. Roy, and the head of 
Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad K.P. Raghuvanshi, have 
squarely blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for orchestrating the July 
11 Mumbai train bombings and have accused the banned Students 
Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) of providing operational 
assistance.  They also identified the three main suspects in the 
case as being behind the large arms and explosives cache 
smuggled into Maharashtra in May, which the police also 
characterized as a joint LeT/SIMI operation, according to these 
news stories.  Police reportedly also suspect that the men were 
behind unsuccessful train bombing attempts in Ahmedabad in 
February, where a mistimed bomb detonated in an empty station, 
and in March at Mumbai's Byculla train station, where suspected 
bomb making components were recovered from a station restroom. 
 
¶4. (U) In these reports, the three main suspects are supposedly 
locals with ties to both LeT and SIMI.  Zahibuddin Ansari 
 
MUMBAI 00001310  002 OF 003 
 
 
(a.k.a. Sayyad Zabiuddin Sayyad Zakiuddin, Zabi Ansari, Nabi 
Ansari) is allegedly an electrician from Beed in central rural 
Maharashtra.  He was identified in ref A as leading an effort to 
smuggle large amounts of firearms and RDX explosives into the 
state in May.  Mohammed Faiyaz (a.k.a. Faiyaz Kagzi) is 
allegedly a native of Aurangabad.  "Rahil" or "Raheel" was 
reportedly described by Commissioner Roy as a SIMI "old timer" 
who once ran a travel agency in Mumbai and has some expertise at 
passport forgery.  In addition to these primary suspects, police 
have detained over 350 residents of Malad, a large Mumbai slum, 
in an effort to apprehend and question SIMI operatives.  Papers 
report that most of those detained are petty thieves and local 
goons, however. 
 
Police Views on LeT Activities in Western India 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶5. (C) An LeT connection is consistent with what the Mumbai 
police have told us in the past.  In a discussion prior to the 
July 11 bombings (see ref C), J.J. Singh of the state police's 
Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) told us that the modus operandi of 
the Aurangabad weapons seizure pointed towards a Pakistan or 
Kashmir connection, although he stressed that the police had no 
conclusive evidence of a link.  Some of the young men arrested 
in Aurangabad, all of whom were believed to be couriers without 
knowledge of the larger operation, had received training in 
Pakistan or Kashmir, Singh told us.  More generally, Singh 
contended that terror groups from outside the Indian heartland 
were the true perpetrators of terror attacks in western India. 
For example, he noted that the police believed the three 
operatives killed in the failed attack on RSS headquarters 
earlier this year were probably foreigners. 
 
¶6. (C) Other observers of terror trends in the region have told 
us that they believe that Pakistan's Directorate for 
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is helping Kashmiri groups 
develop the capacity to launch strikes deep inside India. 
Sundeep Waslekar, President of the Strategic Foresight Group, a 
Mumbai think tank, had told us that he's convinced that the RSS 
attacks had a Pakistan connection.  Ali Asgar Engineer, a 
respected Sunni Muslim human rights activist and writer, told us 
after the bombings that he is convinced of ISI backing for the 
LeT's efforts to establish a foothold in the city's Muslim 
community. 
 
Explosives May Provide Link to Aurangabad Seizures 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶7. (C) In addition to whatever evidence the police may possess 
linking the three accused to prior bombing attempts, police also 
believe that the 43 kilograms of RDX explosives recovered in the 
May Aurangabad smuggling bust was only part of a larger shipment 
(ref A).  The RDX that was not discovered was used in the July 
11 bombings, police are speculating.  Post police sources 
believe that RDX was used on July 11, but it is unknown to us 
whether police have matched it forensically to the RDX recovered 
in May. 
 
The LeT/SIMI Nexus 
 
------------------ 
 
¶8. (C) If the police do suspect that both LeT and SIMI were 
behind the attacks, it would be consistent with the view, taken 
by both police and the Muslim community before the bombings, 
that outside terror groups plan and execute attacks in western 
India and use local Muslim communities for support and 
logistical purposes.  According to this scenario, LeT plotted 
and carried out the attack and used SIMI for local support and 
organization.  SIMI is a shady organization that was banned in 
India in the year 2000.  It had a strong presence in Mumbai and 
after the ban even kept an unmanned office in Mumbai that was 
 
MUMBAI 00001310  003 OF 003 
 
 
raided by police on July 13.  Singh of the Maharashtra ATS told 
us earlier that SIMI had no formal organizational structure. 
Rather, Singh said, SIMI was more "a state of mind" of poorly 
educated and dissatisfied young Muslim men who were prone to 
extremist thinking and action.  Membership or proximity to SIMI 
was constantly shifting among young Muslims in Mumbai, Singh 
said.  The amorphous nature of the SIMI made it difficult for 
the police to assess the group's true strength and size, he 
said. 
 
Is Terrorism Growing Roots in Mumbai? 
 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) According to most reports, the police believe that the 
three main suspects now on the run played a key role in the 
bombings.  It would be noteworthy if the police in fact now 
believe that local Muslims played a key role in the planning and 
execution of a terrorist attack.  Terrorism has no roots in 
western India's large and diverse Muslim community, we regularly 
hear from both police sources and from the region's Muslims 
themselves.  Our interlocutors say that outside extremist and 
terror groups have, at best, only been successful in 
establishing sleeper cells of young men who serve as couriers or 
provide, often unwittingly, logistical support (ref B). 
 
¶10. (C) Prior to the July 11 Mumbai train bombings the police 
told us that they had no reason to assume the existence of 
home-grown terror groups that were capable of planning and 
executing a terrorist attack of any significant magnitude. 
Roy, Pasricha and Raghuvanshi have all been unavailable to brief 
us in the days after the July 11 train bombings, but if 
statements attributed to them in the local media are an 
indication of their thinking then the police may be reexamining 
their views on the presence of Islamic terrorism in Mumbai and 
western India. 
 
Comment 
 
------- 
 
¶11.  (C) The linkage of the Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Aurangabad 
events, and the LeT/SIMI nexus, are consistent with the view, 
which we repeatedly hear from both police and local Muslim 
contacts, that outside groups use local Muslim communities for 
courier and logistical support to launch terror attacks in 
western India.  If, however, local Muslims were among the 
masterminds of the July 11 bombings, it would signal a new and 
worrisome sign that home-grown terrorist capabilities may be 
emerging in western India's large and diverse Muslim community. 
End comment. 
OWEN