US embassy cable - 05NEWDELHI8715

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 NEW DELHI 008715 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR S/CT, DS, SA, P, C, S/P, R, AND PA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2015 
TAGS: PTER, PREL, PGOV, KISL, PBTS, KCRM, ASEC, IN, Kashmir 
SUBJECT: INDIANS WORRIED ABOUT NEW TERROR BLASTS AND 
LASHKAR INSIGHTS 
 
REF: NEW DELHI 8680 
 
Classified By: A/Political Minister Counselor Atul Keshap for Reasons 1 
.4 (B, D) 
 
1. (S) SUMMARY.  In a disturbing up-tick in the level of 
terrorist violence in India, a car bomb blast in Srinagar on 
November 16 killed four and injured 56, including a former 
insurgent who changed sides and served for a period as a 
Kashmiri state minister.  This was the third such deadly 
terrorist incident in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in forty-eight 
hours; in two other incidents, a former Kashmiri tourism 
minister almost lost his life in a grenade attack that killed 
six and wounded 58, while terrorists' gunfire in Lal Chowk 
market in Srinagar killed two police and two civilians and 
injured 60 others, including a Japanese freelance cameraman. 
Heightening Indians' intense anxiety after the October 29 
Diwali attacks in Delhi, J&K police for the first time 
arrested alive a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) suicide squad member 
whom they claim infiltrated from Pakistan 21 days ago and 
took part in the Lal Chowk shootout.  Meanwhile, the Embassy 
has received sensitive new revelations from Indian sources 
indicating the LeT's Diwali bombers received money from the 
UAE and Saudi Arabia, accentuating the group's evolving 
trans-national characteristics.  In addition, J&K police 
sources tell us the LeT is working to establish terror cells 
in Chandigarh, Agra, Maharashtra, and Delhi in part because 
the world press is inured to attacks in Kashmir.  One 
Kashmiri politician speculated terrorists seek to polarize 
India's Muslims and Hindus by expanding their operations 
outside Kashmir.  Indians are increasingly nervous about the 
rising tide of terror and its impact on India's sense of 
security. ACTION REQUEST:  A strong USG message of solidarity 
emanating from Washington would be a welcome morale-booster 
that could keep Indian policies we wish to sustain moving in 
the right direction; please see a suggested draft below in 
paragraph ten.  END SUMMARY. 
 
A DAILY DIET OF DEATH TURNS KASHMIRIS AGAINST TERROR 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
2. (C) Even for a country regularly afflicted by terror for 
the past fifteen years, the last few days have been unusually 
eventful.  Coming on the heels of the Diwali/Eid massacre on 
October 29, three attacks in the Kashmir valley in just 48 
hours have killed 14 and injured almost 200.  Even for 
Kashmiris, it was a bit too much.  Reporters we spoke to in 
Srinagar said women beat their breasts, tugged their hair, 
and ululated in traditional signs of mourning as they saw the 
bodies being removed from the car bomb site outside the front 
gates of the J&K Bank on November 16.  The shootout November 
14/15 in Lal Chowk meant that the entire commercial heart of 
what is nowadays a crowded and prosperous city was under 
siege for 24 hours as police flushed out terrorists, killing 
one and capturing one alive for the first time.  The grenade 
attack in Tangmarg decimated a small village community.  Two 
former ministers almost lost their lives on two consecutive 
days.  This followed terrorists' successful assassination of 
a sitting J&K minister on October 18. 
 
3. (C) When news of the latest bombing reached a November 16 
conference we attended in Delhi, separatist Hurriyat leader 
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, National Conference leader and MP Omar 
Abdullah, and PDP leader and MP Mehbooba Mufti unanimously 
condemned the atrocity, explaining that Kashmiris are 
dedicated to a peaceful settlement to their problems.  The 
Mirwaiz, whose own uncle was killed by terrorists, commented 
it was harder and far more dangerous to be a moderate in 
favor of constructive dialogue than an extremist.  Omar 
Abdullah observed that Kashmiris' mood had changed; he cited 
as proof the recent fizzled anniversary of the day Indian 
troops entered J&K for the first time in 1947; past years' 
observances had been well-attended and feisty.  All agreed 
that terrorism was not the answer, and that peaceful dialogue 
was the surest path to a just and lasting political 
settlement. 
 
BUT TERROR INCREASINGLY FOCUSES ON INDIA 
---------------------------------------- 
 
4. (C) Compounding Indians' concerns about the steady 
drip-drip of terrorism, newspaper revelations about Kashmiri 
businessman and LeT member Tariq Dar, whom police allege 
helped organize the Diwali blasts (reftel) and additional 
police claims that they had captured alive -- for the first 
time in J&K -- a man whom they claim was a suicide-bent 
terrorist involved in the Lal Chowk shootout led Indians to 
confront the "face" of murder and terror.  The businessman 
was a salesman for a multi-national corporation; pictures 
showed him receiving awards for meeting sales goals.  He 
looked like a normal fellow, yet, if police claims hold true 
in court, he worked to kill 71 people.  Lal Chowk detainee 
Ajaz Ahmad Bhat (aka Abu Sunania) is only 20; he looks like 
somebody's clean-cut son.  Police allege he is from Mansooria 
(Faisalabad district) in Pakistan, that the LeT infiltrated 
him 21 days ago, and that he told them calmly he was ready to 
die for the cause.  Police hope he will give them insight 
into LeT tactics and training for suicide operatives. 
 
5. (S) Senior Kashmiri police officer Javed Makdoumi told us 
November 7 that humint and sigint received by his office 
indicated that the LeT is actively recruiting members who 
look and speak like north Indians.  His staff had arrested a 
Kashmiri man involved in the killing of an Indian railway 
engineer in 2004 whom Makdoumi felt could easily have passed 
for a Punjabi.  The man told them LeT had sent him to 
Chandigarh to establish a terror cell at a university. 
Makdoumi also claimed the man said LeT had established itself 
in Delhi, Agra, and Maharashtra in addition to Chandigarh. 
Makdoumi said police worry that Indian cities outside of 
Kashmir will face a wave of terror along the lines of the 
Diwali bombings. 
 
TERRORISTS SEEKING ATTENTION, RELIGIOUS POLARIZATION 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
6. (S) Makdoumi also commented that the LeT had become more 
media savvy.  In the past, their attacks had been throughout 
the valley of Kashmir.  They realized that their media 
coverage was better when attacks occurred near the major 
media outlets, all of whom are clustered in a compound in 
downtown Srinagar.  Thereafter, "90 percent" of attacks 
occurred within four kilometers of the media compound, 
resulting in almost immediate televised coverage throughout 
India.  Makdoumi claimed the LeT was shifting into the rest 
of India because Srinagar attacks rarely made much news 
outside India anymore, whereas blasts in Delhi successfully 
grabbed the whole world's attention.  Omar Abdullah, speaking 
at a conference on November 16, posited the LeT seeks to 
spread its operations throughout India in an effort to 
polarize Hindus and Muslims in the rest of India, even 
though, he claimed, not one non-Kashmiri Muslim Indian had 
ever been arrested for joining the jehadis' efforts in 
Kashmir. 
 
WHILE LeT'S TRANSNATIONAL TIES STRETCH FURTHER AFIELD 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
7. (S) We followed up on media reports (reftel) that the 
Diwali bomber Tariq Dar received money from an unnamed 
Arabian Peninsula country.  Noted terrorism expert Ajai Sahni 
(STRICTLY PROTECT) told us November 16 that five separate 
wire transfers are on record, all from the UAE.  The largest 
of these was over 1.4 million rupees, while the remaining 
four totaled 800,000 Rupees, for a total value of approx. USD 
49,000.  Sahni said police are checking on the source 
accounts.  Even more interestingly, Sahni reported that Dar 
had been arrested in April 2005 when he returned from the Haj 
carrying 860,000 Rupees in Saudi Riyals (approx. USD 19,000). 
 Dar told the court then that business associates had given 
him the money to "invest in India," and was let go, although 
surveilled for a while at a low priority level, then 
neglected.  Sahni commented that unless strong linkages to 
specific expenditure in a terrorist operation, or 
corroborated flows to identified terrorists are identified, 
money smugglers usually get away on such charges with a 
financial penalty and no jail time.  Sahni lamented that 
establishing "terror finance" is extremely cumbersome and 
difficult under current Indian law.  NOTE: The UAE connection 
is being kept very, very quiet by the police and media here, 
likely to avoid embarrassing the UAEG and to elicit its help. 
 END NOTE. 
 
AND CAPABILITIES STRENGTHEN? 
---------------------------- 
 
8. (S) Indians are also increasingly worried about 
widely-read (and widely-believed) news reports here that 
allege the LeT has assumed a prominent role in earthquake 
relief in Pakistan.  Prominent Kashmiri separatist Yasin 
Malik told us he had personally seen USG relief supplies 
being distributed by jehadis.  Malik said the LeT had taken 
on a vigorous new role in providing people in the 
quake-affected region necessary supplies.  MPs Anand Sharma 
(Congress party spokesman) and AR Shaheen (J&K) told us 
November 16 that they were quite worried about the dilution 
of the Pakistani army's role in earthquake relief.  Terrorism 
and security analysts at www.satp.org also issued an analysis 
called, "The State fails, the Jehadis Prevail" which has been 
amplified in various strategic circles here. 
 
AMERICA CAN REASSURE A WORRIED GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
9. (C) COMMENT AND ACTION REQUEST:  The net effect of the 
daily news of fresh terrorist attacks combined with 
revelations of the intricacy and success of terrorist groups 
has made people here nervous.  Following the PM's warnings at 
SAARC in Dhaka to Pakistan and Bangladesh (reftel), some in 
the media said the Indo-Pak peace process might have started 
to cool.  For now, the GOI seems set to continue on a steady 
course of engagement with Pakistan; relief diplomacy at the 
five new LoC openings and the PM's trade proposals in Dhaka 
serve as examples of that steadiness.  Indians are trying 
hard not to let the growing death toll from terrorism 
distract them.  Many Indians do not want to play into 
terrorists hands by disrupting hard-won progress.  Given the 
disturbing increase in the daily level of violence, the USG 
can play a helpful role in ensuring India keeps moving in the 
right direction.  A clear and unambiguous USG message would 
be a useful morale-booster that could reassure Indians that 
their current support for rapprochement with Pakistan and 
dialogue with Kashmiris, as well as rejection of terrorists' 
crude attempts to polarize the nation on religious grounds, 
are the right way to go.  Following the car bombing in 
Srinagar, Washington may wish to consider issuance of a clear 
statement along the lines of the draft in paragraph ten 
below.  END COMMENT AND ACTION REQUEST. 
 
SUGGESTED USG STATEMENT 
----------------------- 
 
10. (SBU) The United States condemns in the strongest 
possible manner the brutal, cruel, and senseless terrorist 
attack that occurred today in downtown Srinagar near the 
corporate headquarters of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank. 
 
As we have said repeatedly, there can be no justification for 
such acts of violence, which have inflicted such harm on the 
people of Jammu and Kashmir and many other parts of India. 
The people of Jammu and Kashmir have manifested their wish -- 
through meaningful participation in elections and on-going 
dialogue by all segments of government and society -- for a 
peaceful outcome of their difficulties that establishes a 
lasting peace and prosperity.  In doing so, they have defied 
the wishes of a tiny minority that continues to wage a bloody 
and increasingly meaningless campaign to sow discord and 
intolerance. 
 
The United States adds its voice to that of the vast majority 
of moderate and peace-loving Kashmiris who have condemned 
violence, and expresses its dismay  at the cruelty of 
terrorists who attack the Kashmiri people on an almost-daily 
basis. 
 
We offer our sympathy to the victims of this and other 
terrorist attacks that have occurred in India, and will 
endeavor to work with the government of India to help ensure 
that the terrorists are brought to justice. 
 
The United States remains committed to the permanent end of 
terrorism against India, which has resulted in so much 
needless and unjustifiable loss of innocent life. 
 
END TEXT OF SUGGESTED USG STATEMENT. 
BLAKE