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“Al-Qaeda instructors trained attackers”

MOSCOW: Russia’s Parliament Speaker said the Mumbai terror strikes appeared to have targeted not only India, but all the BRIC nations.

“The attacks look like an act of intimidation and even public punishment of a country,” said Sergei Mironov, Chairman of the Federation Council. He drew attention to the fact that the attack was directed against a BRIC nation at a time when the four fastest emerging economies are poised to overcome the global crisis earlier than others.

Russia’s presidential envoy for counter-terrorism, Anatoly Safonov, said the Mumbai attackers used the same tactics as Chechen militants did when they raided towns in Russia’s North Caucasus in the 1990s.

“The tactics of terrorising entire towns were first used by Chechen field commanders Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev against the towns of Budyonovsk and Pervomaiskoye,” Mr. Safonov told the Interfax news agency. He expressed the hope that the India-Russia working group on terrorism would meet in the near future to discuss the attacks.

Security service experts also drew parallels with the 2002 seizure of a packed theatre in Moscow by Chechen terrorists. They believe the same Al-Qaeda instructors who trained Chechen militants have trained the Mumbai terrorists. Russian analysts are convinced the Mumbai attacks have been directed from a powerful centre outside India.

“The sheer scale of the attack aimed at a severe and multi-tier political and social destabilisation in India suggests it may be traced not only to Pakistan but to international networks beyond it,” said Anti-Terrorist Training Association president Iosif Linder.

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