Deccan Mujahideen

The word Deccan - corruption of the word dakshin or dakhin - immediately conjures up the image of Hyderabad. But the police in

Hyderabad say that they have never heard of an outfit called "Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan,"- that has claimed to have carried the operations in Mumbai- ever before.

"We haven't come across anything of this sort before," director general of police of Andhra Pradesh S S P Yadav said. "No central or state intelligence agency has ever mentioned that to us," Andhra Pradesh home minister Jana Reddy added.

Analysts who are experts at picking cues from phrases and communications however feel that there could be an indirect connection of the militant group that carried out attacks with Hyderabad. "After Hyderabad was integrated with the Indian union in 1948, there was large-scale migration from the Nizam's state to Pakistan, the UK and the USA.

It is possible that elements involved in the operation had some of their ancestors hailing from Hyderabad and they are using the name to connect with their original homeland," a senior police officer said.

Other analysts pointed out after 1948 not only did the issue of Kashmir reach the United Nations, but even the Nizam in his last days had sent a team to the same agency seeking an independence for Hyderabad in the aftermath of the Independence of India and its Partition. Intelligence officials said that they knew that there were elements in Pakistan who still were not reconciled to the incorporation of Hyderabad to India.

"We know it for a fact that in 2004, Jaish-e- Mohammad militants led by Maulana Masood Azhar had in one of their conclaves in Pakistan had decided to focus on the issue of independence of Hyderabad. What we see today is probably an assertion of this point of view," the intelligence source said.

He added that with Kashmir now at the centre stage, militants want to open up another contentious issue and hope that it would have some emotive appeal. Along with Kashmir and Hyderabad, Junagadh's accession to India had also been challenged by some. But Junagadh is a small district in Gujarat and its potential for generating emotive appeal amongst ex-Junagadhi's abroad is little.

Other analysts who believe that Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan "is real and not a red herring" said that nothing called Indian Mujahideen had also been heard till the rash of terror attacks in the country in the last few months. "But it was found that the term denoted the emergence of home grown terrorists and that was proven with the arrest of many educated merchants of death. The same could be the case with Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan," the officer said.

Director general Yadav however parried questions and tried to deflect the issue saying that the term Deccan denoted Deccan plateau and could denote any place between Pune and Hyderabad. Analysts however ruled out the direct connection of any present Hyderabad citizen with the militant group because the attacks bear the stamp of a high motivated and trained foreign agency.

"The most that we can see is that local underworld elements in Mumbai

may have helped in the landing of the militants in the vicinity of Gateway of India. This is not the job of any local Hyderabad trained ultra," a police source said.

source:TOI