ISLAMABAD, 2 November 2005 — Militants may have carried out the New Delhi bombings in an attempt to embarrass their nemesis President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, security sources and analysts said yesterday.
India hinted Monday at links between Saturday’s blasts and Pakistan-based militants, while an obscure Kashmir group alleged to have ties to a Pakistani extremist outfit claimed responsibility.
But the analysts and security officials said the attacks did not bear the hallmarks of any Kashmiri groups. Leading Kashmiri extremists — who usually claim responsibility for their attacks — also denied any role.
That leaves the main possibility that a faction of extremists angered by Musharraf’s crackdowns on militancy could have planted the bombs to wreck the president’s attempts to build peace with India, they added.
“Pakistan has contained most of the militant groups based in the country, but some of the extremists and rogue elements among them can still pursue their narrow ideological agenda,” said analyst Hasan Askari.
“They may resort to some violent activity to embarrass Pakistan, alternatively this could be aimed at disrupting the peace process these militants oppose,” said Askari, former head of political science at Lahore’s Punjab University.
New Delhi and Islamabad have so far refused to let the attacks derail the peace process they launched in January 2004, continuing plans to allow aid across the border in divided Kashmir after last month’s massive earthquake.
But the bombings in the Indian capital have strained relations between the two countries. Pakistan promptly rejected Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s comments on Monday that there were indications the blasts had links with “external elements” and that Islamabad must curb “cross-border terrorism”.
Pakistan denies the charge and points to Musharraf’s crackdown on militant groups since he joined the US-led “war on terror” after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Among his prime targets have been groups fighting in Kashmir — many of which once enjoyed the covert support of the Pakistani establishment and intelligence services.
In early 2002, following a militant attack on the Indian Parliament which brought the two countries to the brink of war, Musharraf banned key extremist organizations including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad.
“The probability of involvement of some breakaway militants unhappy with the persistent hounding by the Musharraf-led administration is not out of question,” said a senior security official. “By aiding such an attack, these elements can surely strain the current peace moves between Pakistan and India and embarrass President Musharraf.”
None of the Kashmiri militant groups is previously known to have carried out attacks purely to kill random civilians like the Delhi bombings. Instead they prefer military or strategic targets, security sources said.
The biggest Kashmiri guerrilla group, Hizbul Mujahideen, denied its involvement but said the attacks could be a reaction to alleged atrocities by Indian forces in its part of Kashmir.
“We condemn the attacks in New Delhi,” said the organization’s leader, Syed Salahuddin. “It is not the policy of mujahideen to kill innocent civilians. All mujahideen operate under a code of conduct and we never allow such killings.”
An associate of Lashkar-e-Taiba — which an Indian police official said was linked to the group which claimed responsibility for the attacks — denied any links to the attack.
