Indian police on Saturday blamed July’s deadly train bombings in Mumbai on Pakistan’s intelligence agency and the outlawed pro-Pakistan militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
”We have solved the 7/11 bomb blast case,” Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy said, referring to the July 11 attacks that killed 186 people and injured more than 800.
”This whole business was planned by the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] in Pakistan and the LeT, and local operatives here helped them,” he told a news conference.
LeT, a pro-Pakistan Islamist group has been blamed for previous attacks in India. Pakistan and LeT have repeatedly denied involvement.
In July, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that the attackers had support ”from across the border”, a charge that stalled the peace process with Pakistan, with which India has fought three wars.
Seven blasts went off in the space of 15 minutes along Mumbai’s western railway line, tearing open first-class train carriages that were packed with people travelling home from work.
Analysts believe the bombers hoped to fuel Hindu-Muslim tensions and may have targeted first-class carriages to maximise casualties among wealthy Hindus in Mumbai, India’s financial capital.
Roy, who gave no explanation to back his allegations that the ISI planned the bombings, said police had arrested 15 people so far, of which three may be released.
”The role of 12 people has been directly established,” he said. ”Many went to Pakistan at different times for training.”
He said 15kg to 20kg of the explosive RDX ”was brought [into India] by a Pakistani man”.
The bombs were ”kept in bags and then camouflaged by newspapers and umbrellas” in the trains, he said.
Roy said that Indian police had found no evidence that al-Qaeda was involved in the explosions.
Pakistan rejects India claim
Pakistan on Saturday rejected a claim by Indian police that the Pakistani intelligence agency was behind the July 11 Mumbai train bombings.
”This is a totally baseless and fabricated allegation and we reject it,” Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told Agence France-Presse.
Sherpao said it was unfortunate the allegation was made after the leadership of the two countries met in Havana in Cuba early this month where they agreed to resume peace talks and also set up a joint mechanism to fight terrorism.
”Such unfounded allegations maligning Pakistan are not going to help the peace process,” Sherpao said.
India abruptly halted a two-year old peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbours soon after the Mumbai blast. — AFP
