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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 MUMBAI 001652 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR OPS CENTER, S/CT, SCA/INS, DS, DS/IP/ITA, DS/IP/SCA, 
DS/ICI/PII 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  9/8/2016 
TAGS: PREL PTER PGOV KISL CASC ASEC PK IN
SUBJECT: MUMBAI BOMBING INVESTIGATIONS REVEAL DETAILS OF MUSLIM 
EXTREMISM IN WESTERN INDIA 
 
REF: A:  MUMBAI 1360;   B:  MUMBAI 1506;   C:  MUMBAI 1332 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Michael S. Owen, Consul General, Consulate 
General Mumbai, State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
Summary 
 
------- 
 
 
 
¶1. (C) Although police have now arrested 14 men in connection 
with the July 11 Mumbai train bombings, investigators still 
appear to know little about the actual perpetrators of the 
well-planned act of terrorism that killed 187 people and left 
few traces.  All those arrested have been charged on the basis 
of their suspected connections with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and 
the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the two 
groups that investigators firmly believe are responsible for the 
attacks.  The arrested men's links to the attack itself are 
appearing more difficult to prove, although P.S. Pasricha, 
Maharashtra's Director General of Police, told the Consul 
General that he's convinced that the arrested were involved in 
the bombings.  The investigation is providing more insight into 
the reach and methods of Islamic extremist groups in western 
India.  Police and our contacts in the Muslim community now 
acknowledge that many cells of young men, trained and 
indoctrinated abroad by professional jihadist groups, are buried 
deep inside Muslim communities in Mumbai and throughout 
Maharashtra.  Their numbers, both in absolute and relative 
terms, appear to be miniscule, and their radical mindset is not 
reflective of thinking of the vast majority of the region's 
large and diverse Muslim community.  The July 11 bombings, 
however, demonstrate that they can be used effectively as a 
support network for terrorist acts.  Worrisome is also 
Pasricha's claim that police now fear that some cells may now 
have been empowered to plan and execute acts on their own.  End 
summary. 
 
 
 
Fourteen Men Arrested in Connection with Bombings.... 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
 
 
¶2. (U) Fourteen men have now been arrested in connection with 
the July 11 train bombings in Mumbai that killed 187 people. 
According to media reports, police made three arrests on 
September 7 in a Mumbai suburb.  On September 3 a Mumbai court 
charged suspected Pakistan militant Akmal Hashmi with conspiracy 
after Hashmi apparently provided investigators with information 
on the perpetrators of the bombings.  According to media reports 
that we have been unable to verify with Mumbai police, Hashmi 
told investigators that 17 men trained by the Kashmir militant 
group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) carried out the bombings.   Indian 
police in Kashmir arrested Hashmi on August 23 and turned him 
over to Mumbai authorities on September 2.  Several media 
outlets quote unidentified Kashmir police officials as 
questioning the reliability of Hashmi, however. 
 
 
 
¶3. (U) On September 3 Mumbai police sent two of those arrested 
earlier, Tanvir Ansari and Kamal Ahmed (ref A) to a special 
police facility in Bangalore for lie-detector tests.   Media 
outlets quote unnamed police officials as saying that the two 
men have information on several of the seven bombings, a claim 
that we could not corroborate with Mumbai police. 
 
 
MUMBAI 00001652  002 OF 004 
 
 
 
 
....Yet Links to July 11 Remain Unclear 
 
--------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶4. (C) It remains unclear what, if any, direct role that those 
arrested actually played in the train bombings.  All have been 
charged with crimes related to their alleged affiliation to 
banned terror groups.  Police officials have told us that the 
arrested were all conclusively linked to either LeT or the 
banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the two 
groups suspected of conducting the bombings.   Yet the head of 
the state's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) told us (ref B) that the 
police could not link those arrested to either the planning or 
execution of the attacks.  In a August 23 meeting with the 
Consul General, however, Maharashtra Director General of Police 
P.S. Pasricha said that the arrested men were "100 percent" 
involved in the bombings.  Pasricha said that the men had been 
part of the support cells that facilitated the actual bombers, 
but did not specify in greater detail what the police know about 
the men's actual role.  Another "80 to 90" persons were in 
custody but had not been charged, Pasricha said.  Since the 
August 23 conversation, however, none of these persons had been 
charged. 
 
 
 
Police Still Trying to Identify One Victim of Bombing 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
 
 
¶5. (C) Pasricha confirmed that forensic experts had yet to 
determine whether the one unidentified victim of the bombings 
was in fact one of the perpetrators.  Police had created a 
physical copy of the deceased's face in the hope that it will 
help investigators identify the victim.  The police are not 
ruling out the possibility that one of the terrorists died in 
the bombing after no one came forth to claim the body and after 
a little-known group taking credit for the bombing said that all 
but one of the perpetrators returned to Kashmir successfully. 
Hashmi, the Kashmiri arrested on September 3, reportedly told 
the press that 16 of the 17 LeT members who carried out the 
attacks had survived. 
 
 
 
¶6. (C) Pasricha reiterated his conviction (ref C) that 
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) was 
"100 percent" involved in the bombings.  He said that 
investigators had proof that Kamal Ahmed Ansari, arrested in his 
village near the India-Nepal border in Bihar, had smuggled 
weapons and explosives over the border that ultimately found 
their way to Mumbai. 
 
 
 
Investigation Reveals Details About Local Terror Cells 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
 
 
¶7. (C) While top-level police officials still appear to 
understand little about the actual planning and execution of the 
bombings, our discussions reveal that the investigation is 
giving police more insight into the reach and methods of Islamic 
extremist groups in western India.  Pasricha seconded 
Raghuvashni's comments (reported in ref B) that local extremist 
 
MUMBAI 00001652  003 OF 004 
 
 
groups had become widespread and active in western India. 
Pasricha said that SIMI groups were particularly active in many 
second-tier cities of western Maharashtra with sizable Muslim 
populations.  He specifically mentioned Jalgaon and Akola, two 
cities located to the northeast of Mumbai, as centers of the 
SIMI movement.  Pasricha said other cities named by those 
detained were Pune, Kolhapur, Maleaon and Beed, all cities in 
northwestern or southwestern Maharashtra.  Pasricha said that 
SIMI had established large numbers of cells throughout Muslim 
communities.  The cells were typically very small -- two to 
three persons was the normal size -- and operated on a strict 
need-to-know basis.  All of those arrested in connection with 
the July 11 bombings had received training in Pakistan, he said. 
 Echoing Raghuvashni's description of the men, Pasricha said 
they had returned from Pakistan "brainwashed" and "hardened." 
 
 
 
¶8. (C) Pasricha said that many of those arrested told 
investigators that they returned from Pakistan with instructions 
to "lay low" and await a "green signal" from liaisons.  All were 
unaware of the role they would be asked to play in future 
terrorist plots, of the actual background of their liaison 
contacts, or the ultimate target of any such plots.  In any case 
the men appeared to have been trained to carry out support and 
logistics assignments, he said.  Pasricha added, however, that 
in recent months investigators were receiving intelligence that 
some cells had become more empowered to plan and execute acts on 
their own.  He was not more specific. 
 
 
 
¶9. (C) Pasricha also provided the Consul General with background 
on the August 22 shootout between two alleged Pakistani 
operatives and police in Mumbai.  Pasricha said police, acting 
on a tip, detained Pakistan citizen Mohammad Riyaz on the 
evening of August 21. They found a weapon and RDX explosives 
Riyaz's vehicle.  The suspect directed police to an abandoned 
government apartment complex in the Malabar Hill area of the 
city where they located and killed another Pakistan citizen, 
whom Pasricha identified as Mohammad Ali, in a gunfight.  Police 
found 3.5kg of RDX and 1.5kg of ammonium nitrate, so called 
"pencil" timers, an AK-47 gun and a 9 mm pistol.  Pasricha said 
the police were unaware if the two men were linked to the July 
11 bombings, but he said that the find was clear evidence that 
the men were part of a plot to conduct some sort of terrorist 
attack in Mumbai or elsewhere. 
 
 
 
Comment 
 
------- 
 
 
 
¶10. (C) It remains to be seen whether the latest arrest will 
actually lead to a breakthrough in the investigation.  Our most 
recent discussion with Police DG Pasricha, however, only 
confirms the view that investigators still know little about the 
perpetrators and their exact modus operandi, although police 
appear to believe beyond any doubt that LeT and SIMI are 
responsible for the well-planned and well-executed terror 
attacks.  At the same time, the investigation is revealing more 
details about the reach of Islamic fundamentalist groups in 
western India.  Our sources in the Mumbai police and in the 
Muslim community now acknowledge that countless cells of young 
men, trained and indoctrinated abroad by professional jihadist 
groups, are buried deep inside Muslim communities in Mumbai and 
throughout Maharashtra.  Their numbers, both in absolute and 
relative terms, appear to be miniscule, and their mindset is not 
reflective of that of the vast majority of the region's large 
and diverse Muslim community.  The July 11 bombings, however, 
 
MUMBAI 00001652  004 OF 004 
 
 
demonstrate that they can be used effectively as a support 
network for terrorist acts.  Particularly worrisome is 
Pasricha's message that some of these groups may now be 
empowered to act on their own.  The July 11 attacks failed to 
incite communal passions, and Mumbai Muslims remain proud that 
their communities are not breeding groups for terrorism, despite 
Muslims' widespread dissatisfaction with their status in Indian 
society and the perceived failure of the Indian judicial and 
political system to hold accountable those who committed crimes 
against Muslims in Babri and Gujarat.  That existing peaceful 
communal balance in Mumbai could change, however, if local cells 
begin to initiate their own acts of terror. End comment. 
OWEN