Striking Back

To judge by the boastful headlines, you might think Bombay's police had eliminated the city's terrorist threat at a stroke by killing a supposed bombing mastermind in the center of the metropolis last Friday night. "Black Monday's 'brain' shot dead," trumpeted the Indian Express. The truth may not be quite so heartening.

Indian police, who identified the victim only by his first name, Nasir, say he's the founder of the Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force, an extremist group started after Hindus killed some 2,000 Muslims in western India last year. Police blame the group for two bombings in Bombay last month in which 58 people died, along with a bus bomb in July and a train explosion in March that claimed a total of 15 lives. Intelligence officers say Nasir was trained and indoctrinated by Muslim extremists in Dubai and Pakistan, and remained a linkman to Pakistani terrorists. Nasir's brief career as a terrorist came to a sudden end when police officers opened fire on his car in a busy section of downtown Bombay. Inside the car, police found 92 gelatin sticks and eight electric detonators.

But Bombay's terror problem didn't die with Nasir. For a start, police have linked him with only three of the seven blasts that have killed 74 people in India's financial capital since December 2002. Police and intelligence agents also privately admit that this "mastermind" was head of just one of four or five Muslim terrorist cells operating in Bombay. "It would be naive," says Javed Ahmad, the city's second most senior policeman, "to think there aren't any more modules or men around."