September 5, 2003	Friday	Rajab 7, 1424

NEW DELHI: Investigations into a string of blasts in Mumbai in recent months show that the new breed of bombers in India are graduates, doctors and software experts with similar profiles to those who carried out the Sept 11 attacks in the United States.

“If you look at the nature of terrorism — the profile of the Sept 11 attackers or those detained for the Mumbai blasts — it is part of globalization that the terrorist is no longer the shadowy stereotype, the underworld criminal but from the educated middle-class,” said C.U. Bhaskar, deputy director of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi.

His view was echoed by a former police chief, Julio Ribeiro, who told a television channel at the weekend most of those involved in the Mumbai blasts were not mercenaries but educated people fighting a perceived injustice.

The Indian Express newspaper this week profiled 10 men who have been detained or arrested for their alleged involvement in blasts across India’s western financial hub since last December.

According to the Indian Express, all 10 men are university graduates with some having degrees in forensic science, medicine, business management or computer software.

By contrast, police believe that a series of blasts 10 years ago in Mumbai were carried out by “misguided” unemployed youths.

The Hindustan Times in a weekend article noted that riots in Gujarat in March-April last year had been a watershed.

According to the Hindustan Times, Abdul Mohammed Mateen, 28, a specialist in forensic medicine who was arrested for a bomb blast in Mumbai last December, was driven to carry out the attack by the Gujarat violence.

According to analyst Bharat Karnad, from the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, the Gujarat riots likely provided the spark for the Mumbai blasts.

Police said four Muslims arrested for last week’s car bombings were all members of the Gujarat Muslim Revenge Group, a splinter of the hardline Lashkar.—AFP