I doubt this was al-Qaida, simply because it has nothing to do with their professed goals.
India has no troops in Iraq. They’re not pressing the Taliban anywhere.
If it were Kashmiri separatists, they wouldn’t have specifically targeted westerners. Their beef is with India, not the US or UK.
This may be a merely internal Indian thing, but the targeting of Westerners also seems to suggest that’s not right, either.
Until we learn who the attackers were, it’s going to be hard to even determine the motive.
No time for this, sorry.
AQ till facts say otherwise.
I think they still want to draw the U.S. into an ethnic and cultural conflict, and thank God GWB did not take the bait, much as people wanted him to.
This action is in line with that goal, since it involves western victims. They may be hoping that India will actually cooperate more with the U.S., thus inflaming more muslims against India and creating more recruits among the Pakistanis who are still on the fence.
This is not a game of "Tag". It's more akin to Chess.
Respectfully, it is the religion. India is quite friendly with USA and Israel. Kashmir is important to Pakistan where AQ is headquartered. Hindus, like Buddhists, Taoists, Jains, etc are Idolaters and must be killed.
Motive? They hate infidels. India has been on the recieving end of more Muslim jihad in the last several hundred years than any other country.