Experts see Wahabis in garb of Indian Mujahideen

MUMBAI: The intelligence community believes the serial blasts of Bangalore and Ahmedabad were executed by a network of Wahabi fundamentalists masquerading as Indian Mujahideen.

This terror network started by organizing blasts at holy places of rival Barelvi Muslims like the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Rajasthan. Over the past five years the Wahabis, who are heavily funded by religious puritans in Saudi Arabia, have been conducting a high-intensity propaganda war within the Muslim community against so-called un-Islamic practices.

Thousands of publications have been brought out by them to convince Muslims to follow the path of "true Islam". Members of several front organizations also visit homes to convince people to abandon "non-Islamic rituals".

Sources said predictably these activities have been vehemently opposed by the Barelvis who also brought out publications countering the Wahabi ideology, which is believed to provide a theological justification for terror.

A Barelvi publication titled ‘Gair Mokallidon ke Akeede’ quotes chapter and verse from Wahabi publications, which are against Islam. In Mumbai maulanas like Saeed Noori have been in the forefront of the campaign to counter Wahabism.

The proverbial last straw was the blast at Ajmer sharif. It provoked widespread reaction among the Barelvis against Wahabi fanaticism, which had backed the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), police sources said.

"Fearing their isolation, the Wahabi elements are now trying to project themselves as people fighting against injustice to Muslims as a whole. The decision to organize serial blasts in Ahmedabad, including four in Narendra Modi’s constituency, was clearly aimed at getting the sympathy of the Muslim masses," a senior intelligence official observed.

"There is a big vacuum in Muslim leadership and the Wahabis are planning to fill the gap with their violent deeds, he added. However, a majority of Muslims have condemned the blasts and they say that a "big injustice" is being done to the community by those sponsoring such terror strikes.

National secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party and noted advocate Majeed Memon said: "The blasts can have no place in Islam. But if the Indian Mujahideens have any grievance then it should appoint a committee to have a dialogue with the government.

Meanwhile, the Intelligence Bureau is reported to be close on the heels of the mastermind behind the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The bureau is convinced that Indian Mujahideen has been trained by the ISI, which was why the blasts could be executed with professional precision.

It is feared that the next targets could be in Maharashtra where the police force is at its demoralised worst.