Indian Mujahideen, which surfaced on the country's terror radar 10 months ago, has once again managed to shake the country by exploding five bombs in three busy markets in the heart of the nation and experts feel that important places were being made targets for media attention.
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The terrorist group first emerged on the national front when it send an email to some media groups on November 23, 2007, minutes before bombs exploded in buildings of three trial courts in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, one of them situated in Lucknow, the state's capital.
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Former Intelligence Bureau Chief A K Doval feels the group is targeting major cities, mainly 'Capitals' because it wants 'global media attraction'.
"They want to terrorise people and terrorism thrives on publicity. So, they target such areas from where they would get maximum media attention," Doval said.
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Echoing his thoughts, former RAW Secretary A S Dulat said the motive is to gain publicity.
"Smaller cities will not provide them so much publicity as these larger, politically important cities," Dulat told PTI.
This contention was also agreed by Doval who said 'in case of small cities, there is always a threat of yourself being identified, but in bigger ones, you can go unnoticed.'
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"Terrorists use this to their benefit and hide them in the large human jungles of these cities, after completing their jobs with least fear of being caught," the former IB chief said.
While Dulat is of the opinion that the larger motive is 'propaganda publicity' rather than killing people, Doval feels that even low-intensity bombs can kill a number of people if planted in high density population areas and the explosion is triggered at peak hours.
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Dulat added that the material used to prepare low-intensity bombs and was easily available in local markets.
Commenting on these e-mails sent by the terrorist group, the former RAW Chief said the group want to send the message that they were very much present despite arrests in various parts of the country.
