Reference id aka Wikileaks id #66229 ?
Subject Terrorists Increasingly Targeting Hindus
Origin Embassy New Delhi (India)
Cable time Thu, 1 Jun 2006 13:26 UTC
Classification CONFIDENTIAL
Source http://wikileaks.org/cable/2006/06/06NEWDELHI3835.html
History First published on Thu, 1 Sep 2011 23:24 UTC
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Hide headerC O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 003835 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/02/2016 TAGS: PREL [External Political Relations], PTER [Terrorists and Terrorism], ASEC [Security], KIRF [International Religious Freedom], IN [India; Andaman Islands; Lakshadweep Islands; Nicobar Islands], PK [Pakistan] SUBJECT: TERRORISTS INCREASINGLY TARGETING HINDUS REF: NEW DELHI 2998 Classified By: DCM Robert Blake, Jr. for Reasons 1.4 (B, D) ¶1. (C) Summary: Recent terror attacks targeting Hindus could impact Indo-Pak rapprochement and spark religious tension. A foiled May 31 dawn attack on the hardline Hindu Rashtriya Swyamsewak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur that would likely have led to communal violence was averted because of good police work and bad planning by the terrorists. Perhaps more troublesome, terrorists in Srinagar are attacking J&K's economy by targeting buses carrying overwhelmingly Hindu tourists from other parts of India. No non-Indians have been reported injured or killed in these attacks, but that possibility will remain as long as terrorists seek out non-residents. Post is reviewing our Consular Information Sheet to see if updates are warranted. Both communal violence and American casualties have luckily been averted in the past year's terrorist attacks, but the rising numbers of such attacks and their religious dimension represent a worrying new trend in terror in India. This trend could also further limit the UPA's ability to take risks in rapprochement with Pakistan, especially as BJP criticism mounts. End Summary. Dawn Attack on RSS Compound Foiled ---------------------------------- ¶2. (C) Three terrorists were killed by police in Nagpur outside the RSS HQ at approximately 4am on June 1. Police sources told reporters the attackers wore police uniforms, carried AK-47s, and were Lashkar-e-Tayyiba members; no group has yet publicly taken credit for the failed attack. (NOTE: Terrorists have used security services uniforms as disguises in J&K for some time now, and we are starting to see this more frequently in the rest of India. End Note.) Police sources and former RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said the RSS was warned a week before the attempt, and then again a few days prior, to expect an attack on June 1. Madhav told us that, as a precaution, the group changed its external security guards after the first warning, so any terrorist trying to infiltrate by pretending to be part of the guard force would not have a good knowledge of the compound's lay-out. (COMMENT: Presumably, this would have also made it easier for a disguised terrorist to pass himself off to the newly-hired guards as a police officer, or to insinuate himself directly into the compound's guard force. End Comment.) ¶3. (C) The RSS headquarters in Nagpur consists of two compounds, both heavily protected. The Mahal facility, which the terrorists targeted, is used as a training camp; the most likely target at 4am would be the group's dawn shaka (group exercises) which would have taken place between 4-5am. The other compound, Reshmi Bagh, contains RSS offices and living quarters for the group's top brass, none of whom were in Nagpur at the time of the attack (nor are they typically in Nagpur at this time of year, according to our PolFSN). Had RSS supremo K. Sudarshan been injured or killed by jihadis, RSS mob violence likely would have followed throughout India. What we do not know is whether the shaka (or the facility itself) was the actual target, if the terrorists had wanted to kill RSS brass but had erroneously selected the wrong time and location, or if this was an encounter staged by either the local police or the RSS itself to stoke communal tension. Tourism the New Target in J&K ----------------------------- NEW DELHI 00003835 002 OF 002 ¶4. (C) The May 31 grenade attack on two tourist buses in Srinagar that injured approximately 25 visiting West Bengalis suggests terrorists may also be targeting (largely Hindu) tourism. This attack on tour buses near the hotel at which the tourists were staying follows similar grenade attacks on May 23 (bus driver and one Madhya Pradesh tourist killed, six injured on a bus in Srinagar) and May 25 (five Gujarati tourists killed and ten injured on a bus on the outskirts of Srinagar). Our contacts in the J&K hospitality industry report rising cancellations; Jet Airways says they have received no new tourist bookings recently, and the manager of the Welcome Hotel, perfectly situated across the Boulevard from Dal Lake, told us that tourists from Southern India are curtailing their vacations, "the season is finished," and the bustling Boulevard "looks like there is a curfew." (See Reftel for J&K tourism atmospherics before these attacks.) Post is reviewing our Consular Information Sheet to see if updates are warranted. Comment: Indians Restrained ... For Now --------------------------------------- ¶5. (C) We cannot authoritatively say why most of the terrorist attacks focused on Hindus over the past year have stayed below the Indian threshold for pandemonium and mass slayings in the streets (as witnessed after the October 1984 assassination of Indira Gandhi) or a sharp decline in Indo-Pak relations (as after the December 2001 Parliament attack). The Ayodhya, Sarojini/Diwali, Varanasi, and Doda attacks -- and now the abortive assault on the RSS compound -- have all failed to meet that threshold. Credit goes to the PM and his government, and to the Indian public, for having resolutely refused to permit exactly what the terrorists want: religious riots. However, if any of these attacks had "succeeded" in causing mass fatalities or desecrating a sacred Hindu site -- or if any future attack does so -- anti-Muslim mobs may yet take to the streets, and Indo-Pak rapprochement may suffer. Already, the BJP's shrill criticism of the UPA's Kashmir, Indo-Pak, and security policies is limiting the UPA's ability to take risks for Indo-Pak rapprochement. ¶6. (U) Visit New Delhi's Classified Website: (http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/sa/newdelhi/) MULFORD
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