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Friday outrage at a historic mosque

Yet another major terrorist attack designed to instigate communal trouble has taken a toll of 14 lives — 9 killed in the bomb explosion and five dying in the violent aftermath from police bullets — and injuries to dozens. The damage caused by the explosion of a powerful device in the midst of a Friday congregation of 10,000 Muslims at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad's Old City would have been greater but for the `taqt,' a raised marble platform, that bore the brunt of the blast. The loss of life and limb would have been incomparably, horrendously worse had two improvised explosive devices discovered and defused by the police in the nick of time exploded. In the aftermath of the bomb explosion, the Old City witnessed one of those familiar scenes of retaliatory mob violence. The Andhra Pradesh Government has ordered a magisterial enquiry into the police firing and the circumstances that led up to it.

The needle of investigative suspicion points to an Islamicist extremist group. The early evidence discovered by the police includes traces of RDX, a damaged cell phone, and a second one, with a SIM card, attached to an unexploded IED. The nature of the explosive device, notably the fact that it was triggered by a cell phone, suggests that the perpetrators were reasonably sophisticated. The Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Harkat ul-Jihad Islami, and the Jaish-e-Mohammad have all demonstrated expertise in fabricating the kind of device used in Hyderabad. Of these three groups, the intelligence community believes the Harkat ul-Jihad Islami, or HuJI, is most likely to have carried out the attack. Shahid Bilal, a HuJI organiser who hails from Hyderabad and was last spotted in Karachi some months ago, is thought to have been planning an attack in the area for some time. The likely objective of the bombing is to provide a pretext for a renewal of the large-scale jihadi offensive seen in 2005-2006. Pakistan moved to curtail the terror operations of these elements in the wake of the Havana Summit. Since then, jihadi groups have carried out attacks they hope can be passed off as the work of Hindu fundamentalists, notably the bombing of the Samjhauta Express. The Hyderabad mosque bombing seems part of this pattern.

Given the wider ramifications, this appears to be a case that should necessarily be handled by the Central Bureau of Investigation. It does appear that the Union Home Ministry and the Intelligence Bureau alerted some States, including Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, about the possibility of this kind of terrorist attack. There was a significant police presence near Hyderabad's Mecca Mosque but to no avail. Police officials complain that there is resistance to frisking and the use of metal detectors and doorframes for security at the entrance to places of worship. One immediate lesson from the Hyderabad tragedy is that the managements of all places of religious worship must accept, and indeed insist upon, essential security measures to protect their congregations. They also need to help identify extremist elements who are adept at mixing with innocents in places of worship. It is the responsibility of the custodians of mosques, temples, and churches to cooperate with the appropriate authorities in taking preventive and protective measures against extremism and terrorism.

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Friday outrage at a historic mosque

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