Tuesday, August 5, 2008

CHINESE WORRIED BY NEW JIHADI MODUS OPERANDI

INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR--PAPER NO.426

B.RAMAN

On July 2,2008, two Israelis were killed and 30 others injured when a tractor driven by an Arab resident of east Jerusalem trampled over pedestrians and vehicles and flipped over two buses in central Jerusalem.A state of emergency was declared in the city following the attack. Jerusalem Police Chief Aharon Franco told the media that a tractor driven by a terrorist began hitting vehicles and flipped over two buses." There was a similar attack a week later.

2. On August 4,2008, 16 police border guards of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security were killed at Kashgar in the Xinjiang province, when they were allegedly attacked by two Uighurs belonging to the Islamic Movement of East Turkestan (IMET). According to the initial version of the local authorities, the Uighurs came to a border post in a stolen heavy truck, jumped out and threw hand-grenades at a party of police guards doing their morning exercise. Subsequently, they said they actually threw home-made explosives at the policemen who were jogging.

3. According to a foreign blogger based in Xinjiang, there were unconfirmed reports that the police guards actually died when the two Uighurs drove their heavy truck into them. They had no explosives or weapons. If true, this seems to have been a copy-cat emulation of the modus operandi (MO) adopted by Palestinian terrorists against the Isrealis in East Jerusalem.

4. The Chinese have not admitted that the police guards were killed when the truck drove into them. They continue to maintain that the police guards were killed by explosives. They seem to be worried that this MO might be copied by other terrorist groups in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong during the Olympics.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

CHINESE DELINK XINJIANG INCIDENT FROM OLYMPICS

INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR---PAPER NO.425

B.RAMAN

In an attempt to reassure the participating countries and foreign visitors that the terrorist strike by two persons, since identified as Uighurs belonging to the Islamic Movement of East Turkestan (IMET), on a group of border police guards of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security at Kashgar in the Xinjiang Province on August 4,2008, would have no impact on the security of the Beijing Olympics being inaugurated on August 8,2008, the authorities of the Public Security Department of Xinjiang have been projecting the attack as an act of reprisal for the action taken by them against the IMET. According to them, the attack, in which 16 police guards died, had nothing to do with the Olympics.

2. According to them, the two attackers were natives of Kashgar aged 28 and 33. One is a taxi driver and the other a vegetable vendor. According to the official account, they had stolen the truck in which they travelled to the police post. Initially, the local authorities had stated that the attackers jumped out of the truck and threw hand-grenades at the police guards, who were jogging and then attacked them with knives. They subsequently stated that the attackers threw country-made explosives at the police guards. They also claimed to have recovered nine home-made explosive items, one home-made gun and two knives from the attackers. They claimed that these were similar to the items recovered by the police from a training camp of the IMET in January,2007.

3. However, according to a foreign blogger living in Xinjiang, there were unconfirmed reports circulating that the police guards actually died when the two attackers drove the heavy truck into them. If true, for some reason, the local authorities do not want to admit this. However, a despatch dated August 5 of the Government-owned Xinhua news agency said as follows:"One of the attackers drove a truck to ram into a team of more than 70 policemen who were jogging during a regular exercise at about 8:00 AM. The driver and the other attacker also threw explosives at the team and the gate of the station. Road checks have been strengthened across Xinjiang and the local authorities in Kashi (Kashgar) have ordered a full security alert in public places including government office buildings, schools and hospitals." (5-8-08)

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )