New Delhi, October 24
The Indian intelligence and security establishment is closely monitoring the Moscow hostage crisis as Chechen rebels’ deep-rooted links with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida are well known and their modus operandi in storming the Moscow theater brings back memories of the December 13 terrorist attack on Parliament House.

Virtually the entire Indian security and intelligence agencies held in-house stock-taking meetings today to discuss the Moscow developments and are keenly watching the Russian government’s response in dealing with the crisis.

Well-placed sources here disclosed to The Tribune today that the individual assessments of each of these agencies will be shared as and when their coordinated meeting takes place.

The Indian agencies are deeply interested in the Moscow hostage crisis and how it unfolds as it brings forth reminiscences of the December 13 attack on Parliament. Like the Chechen militants, the Parliament attackers were from outfits (like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad) which are very close to Al-Qaida. In both cases, the militants were dressed in army fatigues, armed with automatic weapons and explosives and carried food provisions with them.

However, there are two major differences in the two incidents. While there were only five terrorists in the Parliament attack, the ongoing Moscow hostage drama is being enacted by 50 terrorists, significantly including women.

Secondly, the Chechen terrorists have reportedly wired the besieged theatre building with explosives. The Indian Parliament attackers had also attempted to wire a part of Parliament House building with explosives but could not do so by a quirk of fate.