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FACTBOX-Indian Mujahideen says it carried out bomb attacks
28 Jul 2008 08:33:19 GMT
 Source: Reuters
July 28 (Reuters) - A group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen says it carried out a series of bomb attacks in the western state of Gujarat on Saturday that killed at least 45 people. Here are some facts about the little-known group.

* The group first emerged in the wake of bombings in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in November 2007, sending one e-mail to media outlets just before some of the bombs exploded.

Another email was sent after May's bomb attacks in the tourist city of Jaipur that killed 63 people, declaring "open war against India". In a sign of its authenticity, the e-mail included the serial number of one of the bicycles on which the bombs were left.

* That e-mail, signed by "Guru Al-hindi", said India would face more attacks in tourist sites if it did not stop supporting the United States in the international arena.

* So far Indian police say they know little about the group or its members, which could be a front for another militant organisation, possibly with foreign links. Some of the bombings for which the group has claimed responsibility bore the hallmarks of the Bangladeshi militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami.

* Another e-mail was sent to local media outlets a few minutes before the first bombs exploded in Ahmedabad, warning that people would soon "feel the terror of death" in the name of Allah.

It said the attacks were carried out in revenge for the Gujarat riots of 2002, when around 2,500 people, most of them Muslims, were killed by Hindu mobs.

* Another e-mail, sent later, threatened the state governments of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra to stop harassing, imprisoning and torturing Muslims.

It also threatened media outlets, especially the Times of India and Times Now, to stop their "propaganda war" against Muslims, and warned Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries <RELI.BO> and one of the world's richest men, to think twice before building a luxury 27-story home on land in Mumbai previously owned by a Muslim charity.

* A senior police officer told Reuters the various emails were "strikingly similar". (Writing by Simon Denyer; Editing by Alistair Scrutton)


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