India has arrested three men in connection with last week’s Mumbai bombings that killed more than 180 people, and urged Pakistan on Friday to hand over a top Kashmiri militant as a gesture of its determination to fight terrorism.
The three men, all Indian Muslims, were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the July 11 attacks on packed commuter trains and stations in India’s financial hub, a police official said.
“Yesterday, on July 20, we arrested three suspected accused in connection with the bomb blast case,” KP Raghuvanshi, chief of Mumbai’s anti-terrorism squad, told a news conference.
Two of them were picked up from the Madhubani district of eastern Bihar state, Raghuvanshi said, but gave no details of the arrest of the third. However, local TV said the third man was arrested in Mumbai.
Asked which organisations these men belonged to, Raghuvanshi said their links appeared to come from Nepal and Bangladesh, but added they were also in some way connected to Pakistan. He did not elaborate.
But the Indian foreign ministry said that Pakistan must arrest Syed Salahuddin, head of the Hizb-ul-Mujahedin, the largest militant group active in Indian Kashmir, and hand him over to New Delhi.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna also said New Delhi wants Pakistan to ban another militant group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which the United States says is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group Indian officials say probably carried out or planned the Mumbai attacks.
Islamabad has denied any connection with the bombings and, on Thursday, President Pervez Musharraf said New Delhi should desist from a “blame game” on the Mumbai blasts.
After the blasts, an angry New Delhi put off peace talks with Islamabad, saying Pakistan was not doing enough to stop the activities of anti-India militants on its soil.
“Let me add India remains committed to the dialogue process with Pakistan but this can be sustained or yield results only if Pakistan acts against terrorist groups operating from territories under its control,” Sarna said.
A spokesperson of the Hizb-ul-Mujahedin group quickly dismissed the demand for the arrest of its leader, saying: “India has occupied our territory and does not have any right to make such demand.”
Remanded
The three men arrested by Indian police appeared before a Mumbai court on Friday and are to stay in police custody for 10 days.
Raghuvanshi said 500g of a black powder was recovered from the house of one of the arrested men, and is being tested.
“On the basis of interrogations so far, we have learnt that these people are linked to terrorist activities,” he said, adding their role in the train blasts will be revealed later.
Hundreds of people, mostly minority Muslims, were rounded up for questioning by the Mumbai police in the wake of the blasts, which occurred in the evening rush hour.
In off-record briefings and comments, police in Mumbai have said they believe Indian Muslims could have carried out the bombings, possibly members or former members of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (Simi).
Simi was banned in 2001 for allegedly trying to stir up religious unrest over the United States-led war on terror. — Reuters
Additional reporting by Kamil Zaheer in New Delhi and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad