The five-page e-mail, sent at 1:37 pm, "dedicates" the attack to the "martyrdom" of Mohammed Atif Amin and Mohammad Sajid two years to the day at Batla House in Delhi.
Titled "As We Bleed, So Will You Seep", it warns against the hosting of the Commonwealth Games, saying it was preparing for a "great surprise", and warns "Bombayites" of a "fresh bloodbath". Also, for the first time in an e-mail attributed to the IM, the Kashmir problem is talked about at length.
However, the mail, which was also addressed to Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband, in addition to television channels and newspapers in India and abroad, neither makes any direct mention of today's incident nor provides any details about it.
While the Delhi Police are not yet dubbing it a terror attack, investigators acknowledge that the e-mail bears a striking resemblance to previous such mails sent by the IM.
"The mail is indeed from the Indian Mujhaideen as the logo and scanned image of signatures (on it) are still in their possession and seem to have been used," said a senior official. Like the previous mails, this one too has verses from the Koran (though not the same ones as used earlier).
What may have changed, the official adds, are the content writers. Today's e-mail consistently refers to 'Bombay', including 'Bombay Police', instead of calling the city Mumbai. Three earlier mails sent by the IM had used Mumbai all along. The repeated use of the term "idol worshippers" to describe the security forces is another new feature. And unlike earlier e-mails, the latest does not have any pictures.
The e-mail sent today was signed 'Al Arbi' and sent from an id called al.arbi999123@gmail.com. Al Arbi, as in the IM e-mails sent before the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts, is said to be the call sign of the group's top terrorist, Iqbal Shahbandri of Bhatkal, just as Guru-Al-Hindi is reportedly the signature of his younger brother, Riyaz Shahbandri of Bhatkal.
According to Mansoor Peerbhoy, accused in the Ahmedabad serial blasts case, Riyaz had given an image of his signature while Iqbal had signed "Al Arbi" with his own hand on the Ahmedabad e-mail. Iqbal Bhatkal has taken over as the chief of operations of IM from Amir Raza Khan. Khan and Riyaz Bhatkal have shifted to Dubai, while Iqbal is based in Karachi.
According to officials at the Mumbai Crime Branch who have investigated the IM's e-mails, it is Iqbal Bhatkal who decides the content -- most of it news of "atrocities on Muslims" pulled from Islamic websites -- and instructs the media cell.
Once the content is decided, it is given to Mubin Shaikh, a 26-year-old resident of Kondhava, Pune, to write it in the manner decided. Then a scanned image of "Al-Arbi" is pasted on the e-mail. Shaikh is also credited with having designed the logo of IM.
The e-mail sent today dwells at length on the Kashmir problem, including making a reference to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It says Kashmiris are being slaughtered by Indian forces, who are not sparing 8-year-old boys to 80-year-olds, and that 22 stone-pelters were killed by the Army on Eid day. "Just as our children have faced horrors, so will your kids," the e-mail says.
The e-mail also talks about the "criminal silence of the international community" being far more dangerous than the "oppression perpetuated on the helpless Kashmiri Muslims by the imperialist and expansionist attitude of the Indian state".
Questioning the "so-called Islamic scholars who waste their energies designing fatwas against us", the e-mail asks: "Why are they lip-locked over the genocide of Kashmiri brothers and sisters?"
The e-mail makes a mention of three specific incidents -- one relating to a teenager named Salman, who was allegedly beaten up by the Delhi Police, the other relating to a hijab-wearing woman who was "insulted and humiliated" at Mumbai's KEM Hospital and the third relating to "the detention and torture of more than 700 Muslim youth" in Ratlam during Eid. The mail specifically names Ratlam SP Mayank Jain and the District Collector for "harassment" on Eid.
The e-mail also singles out Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria, accusing him of arresting innocent youth, and threatens a repeat attack on Mumbai.
Source: Indian Express
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