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Old 11-26-2008, 11:40 PM
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Professor Deepa Ollapally has said the scale and sophistication of the Mumbai terrorist attacks leave one with the impression that it has all of the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda inspired attack, probably well-financed by outside forces.

Ollapally, professorial lecturer and associate director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University, also told that the name Deccan Mujahideen, akin to the earlier terrorist attack claimants calling themselves Indian Mujahideen, was obviously a ploy to confuse people that the terrorists were indigenous and home-grown, when it was highly unlikely it was so.

"Not only is it unprecedented, but also the fact that this group apparently laying claim for this -- the Deccan Mujahideen -- is completely unknown, and so the question is, these new names are now coming up, no one really knows what the true source of these are."

Ollapally said, "It's almost as if they are playing a guessing game, and it's a pattern you've seen in other places. You've seen it, when a group is banned they come up with a different name. But, also having these different names, it creates a lot of confusion because Indian Mujahideen, Deccan Mujahideen, they are trying to associate themselves as being internal, indigenous, home-grown and all that."

Ollapally said, "The way in which this was carried out, it does suggest that they needed some fairly sophisticated, coordinated planning. And, if the reports are true about their rounding up Americans and British, then it sounds like there is an Al Qaeda hand possibly, which again would be the most obvious difference between every other terrorist attack that has gone on before (in India)."

"And, then the point of, what is the motive for this. It's not as if something sparked it off. It's really not clear. The question is, whether it's a new phenomenon. Is it a new strategy? What then is the objective?"

She acknowledged, "Who knows if it had anything to do with the presidential transition here in the US? And, there are elections coming up in India also. So, that's the other thing -- whether it is to destabilise India. And, there have been criticism that the current government has not been acting swiftly and so forth," to combat the scourge of terrorism in India.

"So, they can use this for electoral reasons also," Ollapally said, "but again, all this is complete speculation."

However, she agreed that "there has been all this speculation about testing the US, the incoming administration, although this doesn't really jell. I mean, if it were the Al Qaeda and they wanted to test Obama, there are other places where they can do it that would be much more front and centre that would capture the US attention much more. So, this seems probably a little far-fetched."

Ollapally also speculated that "on the one hand, you've got the Indian foreign minister and the Pakistani foreign minister speaking and they have been making some progress and so forth, so this could be to destabilise that -- to throw these talks off."

She recalled that "when the Indian embassy in Afghanistan was bombed, the US intelligence did find the Pakistani intelligence connected. So, you cannot rule out any of these things."

"It's one thing to have summitry between India and Pakistan, but the point is, unless Pakistan really cracks down on the groups that operate there -- and that requires almost a mini internal war on terrorism -- this is not going to stop."
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