Muslim RAW, a new jihadi outfit?

Changing the names of terror outfits may be a new tactic by the terrorists to confuse investigating agencies. Names like the Indian Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Qaharby may have been floated to divert the attention of investigators.

Another name -- Muslim RAW -- has now caught the attention of the security agencies. Those probing e-mails sent by the Indian Mujahideen say Muslim RAW could be another name for the outfit.

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Muslim RAW, which operates a blog, was the first to report the death of suspected terror mastermind Shahid Bilal. Investigating agencies told rediff.com that they have a strong suspicion that this outfit could be an offshoot of either the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-al-Islami or the Students Islamic Movement of India and that its members are based in Hyderabad. The IB believes that SIMI and HuJI are interconnected and the former is just an executing agency for the latter.

Terrorist Shahid Bilal dead: IB

The Indian Mujahideen's e-mails and Muslim RAW's blog posts are clearly aimed at misleading investigating agencies and both call upon Muslim youth to take up jihad. Both seem to have been written by well-educated people and discuss at length the atrocities allegedly being committed on the Muslim community.

Muslim RAW on its blog makes a reference to the attack on the Special Task Force in Hyderabad and terms it a heroic jihadi operation.

The confusion regarding Bilal: The Muslim RAW blog wants the investigating agencies to believe that Bilal is dead. The blog has posted two photographs, which it claims are of Bilal's body. But the posts says he was falsely implicated in the Mecca Masjid blasts in Hyderabad. Intelligence Bureau officials say there is a desperate bid to absolve him of the blasts at a holy shrine, which earned the wrath of the community.

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